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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN 
SCHOOL? 



jEbttraliottal gagrlyologg iHIotto$rayI?B 

WHEN SHOULD A CHILD 
BEGIN SCHOOL? 

An Inquiry Into the Relation Between the Age of Entry 
and School Progress. 

BY 

W. H. WINCH 



Honorary Treasurer British Psychological Society ; Member of the British Association Com- 
mittee for Mental Measurements ; Chairman of the Committee of the Teachers' 
Guild of Great Britain and Ireland on Psychological Research in 
Schools; Inspector of Schools for the London 
County Council. 

Author of "Problems in Education," "German Schools," etc. 




Valtimore 

WARWICK & YORK, Inc. 

1911 



s<^^ 



v^:# 



Copyright 1911 

BY 

WARWICK & YORK, !nc. 



-/ 



©C1.A2S06G5 



Prefatory Note 1 

Statistical Note 3 

I. Introduction 7 

II. Age of Entry and Subsequent Progress in Senior 

Scliools 9 

III. Age of Entry and Progress in Infants' Depart- 

ments 39 

IV. Age of Entry in Its Relation to the Social Circum- 

stances of the Children 77 

V. Influence of Early Entry on Behaviour and Atten- 

tiveness 89 

VI. Summarized Conclusions 94 

Index .97 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

The results of this inquiry are now to be pub- 
lished for the first time. Some of them have been 
privately circulated, and a few of the tables, to- 
gether with the methods employed, were discussed 
at a meeting of the Inspectors of the Education 
Committee for London in the Autumn of 1905. 

I tender my thanks to Sir Francis Galton and Pro- 
fessor Karl Pearson, who, some years ago, kindly 
considered this research in its statistical aspects; 
but I hasten to say that the responsibility for all 
error, both of method and calculation, is wholly 
mine. 

I wish also to express my indebtedness to the 
teachers who helped me in this inquiry, especially 
to those who assisted me in preparing the tables 
and working out the coefficients of correlation. 

I started the inquiry with an opinion in favour 
of early entry; but my only regret at the conclu- 
sion arrived at is due to the pain, as of wasted 
effort, felt by more thaii one excellent Infants' 
Mistress to whom the full force of the figures came 
home. 

W. H. W. 

London, August, 1910. 



STATISTICAL NOTE. 

The formula for correlation which is used through- 
out the following research is the well-known Pear- 
son formula : 

2xy 

r=r 

Its meaning and application will become clearer 
to the non-statistical if it is considered in relation to 
one or two examples. 

Let us suppose that we have seven boys who re- 
ceive marks for Arithmetic and marks for English 
Composition; and let us suppose, for illustrative 
purposes, that the marks are as given in the follow- 
ing table : 





:a 






S 


m O 






% 




s 


MS3 






S' 


M a 






ly 




a 


u-t-' 






CO 


^ a 






cc 


n 


1 


est: 






m 


5o 


00 




w 


r1 


A. B. 


7 


+3 




9 


14 


+ 6 




36 


4-18 


C. D. 


6 


+2 




4 


12 


+4 




16 


+8 


E. F. 


5 


+ 1 




1 


10 


+ 2 




4 


+ 2 


G. H. 


4 










8 













I. J. 


3 


—1 




1 


6 


—2 




4 


+2 


K. L. 


2 


—2 




4 


4 


—4 




10 


+8 


M. N. 


1 
Av.=4 


—3 




9 


2 
Av.=8 


—6 
Total= 


36 


+ 18 




Dtal= 


=28 


112Sum=56 








AV.: 


-=4 






Av.= 


=16 










V4: 


= 2 






V16 


=A 





A casual glance will show us that there is a per- 
fect positive correlation between the marks for the 
two subjects, arithmetic and composition. The boys 
strong in one subject are proportionately strong 
in the other, and the weak boys in one subject are 
proportionately weak in the other. Perfect pos- 



4 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

itive correlation is expressed by unity or, more 
exactly, by +1. Let us see how this value would 
be obtained by means of the calculations required 
for the given formula. 

First find the average mark in the first series of 
marks, namely, those for Arithmetic. This is seen 
to be 4. Now find the deviation from the average 
of each individual mark in the first series, of A. 
B's mark, of C. D's mark, and so on. These devi- 
ations are shown in the second column of figures 
starting from the left, and constitute the ''x's" 
of the Pearson Formula. The x's are now squared, 
as given in the next column of figures to the right. 
These squares are added up and their average found, 
which in this case =4. Finally, the square root of 
the average of the squares is found (=2) and this 
figure is the **(Ti" (standard deviation), of the given 
formula. Corresponding operations with the marks 
for Composition enable us to find the y's and "a--" 
required by the formula — a glance at the table will 
show what these are. The last column of figures 
to the right shows the xy's required. These are 
obtained by the multiplication of the first series of 
deviations (x's) into the second series of devia- 
tions (y's), and the "^ xy" of the formula is the 
sum of these x y's, which, in this case, =56. The 
''n" of the formula is the number of cases, in this 
instance =7. Substituting the numerical values 
found we have 

2xv -I- 56 

Coefficient of correlation or "r" = = -= ^ — ; = -|- 1. 

n<T,ff2 7 X 2 X4 

Now let us imagine that the marks were quite 
otherwise related than as shown in the above table. 
Let us suppose that the boys who were strongest in 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PEOGRESS. 5 

Arithmetic were weakest in Composition, and that 
those who were strongest in Composition were 
weakest in Arithmetic in such wise as is represented 
by the next table. It is still obvious that we have 
perfect correlation, but this time of a negative kind. 
After the preceding explanations, it will be quite 
clear from a mere inspection of the table how the 
coefficient of correlation, namely — 1, is arrived at. 



a 
« 
5^ 




ll 


to 




1 

CO 




OD O 


in 




s 

to 




A. B. 




7 


+3 




9 




2 


—6 




36 


—18 


C. D. 




6 


+2 




4 




4 


—4 




16 


—8 


E. F. 




5 


+ 1 




1 




6 


—2 




4 


—2 


G. H. 




4 












8 












I. J. 




3 


—1 




1 




10 


+2 




4 


—2 


K. L. 




2 


—2 




4 




12 


+4 




16 


—8 


M. X. 


Av 


1 


—3 
1 




9 


Av 


14 

.=8 


+6 
Total= 


36 
112Sum= 


—18 




.=4 


^otal= 


=28 


^56 










Av.= 


=4 








Av.= 


=16 












V4 = 


i2 








V16: 


=4 




Coefficient of correlation 


I or 


"r" : 


Sxy 





-56 





-1. 



n<7j(72~7x2x4 

But, of course, the relationships between the 
marks for Arithmetic and for Composition are 
never in actuality like those of either of the 
above tables. If they were usually of such forms 
as these, common sense would be adequate to dis- 
cover the correlation without appeal to formulae. But 
let me now give a case, still artificially simplified, 
but such as might be more likely to occur in actual 
practice. 

I ask my reader to look first at the marks for 
Arithmetic and those for Composition in the next 
table and guess the correlation between them. It is 



b WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

obviously positive ; that is, the good boys in one sub- 
ject are, generally speaking, good in another; but 
there are some irregularities. The correlation is 
not perfect, but it seems rather nearer to perfect 
correlation than to the absence of all correlation, 
which would be expressed by 0. The table with the 
working out of the formula shown below gives us a 
definite value for this correlation, namely, +.75. 



a 








es 
1 


m o 

>^ a 


BJ 




a* 

CO 








to 






5o 


X 








A. B. 


7 


+3 




9 


12 


+4 




16 


+ 12 


C. D. 


6 


+2 




4 


10 


+2 




4 


+4 


E. F. 


5 


+ 1 




1 


14 


+6 




36 


+6 


G. H. 


4 










8 













I. J. 


3 


—1 




1 


2 


—6 




36 


+6 


K. L. 


2 


—2 




4 


4 


-^ 




16 


+8 


M. N. 


1 
Av.=4 


—3 

Total= 


9 

=28 


6 

Av.=8 


—2 
Total= 


4 


+6 




112Sum= 


=+42 








Av.= 


=4 






Av.= 


=16 










V4 = 


=2 






V16 


=4 





2xy +42 

Coefficient of correlation or "r" =: = - — ^ — j^ = + '75 

i\<7,ff^ 7X2X4 

One word of caution — these tables are merely 
illustrative. The marks are not actual, and more- 
over, the formula is not generally suitable for ap- 
plication to series containing such a small number 
of cases as seven. 

One further word — correlation coefficients are not 
reliable unless they are two or three times as large 
as the "probable error." In the following research 
the probable error has been found from the formula 

•67449 (1— r^) 

where 'n,' as in the previous formula, is the number 
of cases in the series, and 'r' is the coefficient of 
correlation. 



I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Few educational questions have excited more 
general interest in recent years than that of the 
age at which children should commence their 
attendance at school. On the one side we have 
had the rule-of-three conclusion, felt rather than 
expressed as an inference, that the more teaching 
the child gets and the sooner he begins school, the 
more progress he is sure to make. On the other side 
we have had a strong feeling, now, I think, grow- 
ing in intensity and range, that attendance at school 
in England begins too early and that there is an 
educational disadvantage in commencing so soon. 
I am not aware that any inquiry has been under- 
taken, the facts and conclusions of which would be 
logically acceptable to both parties in the dispute. 
An English educationist turns naturally to Ger- 
many and America to see if any scientific inquiry 
has been made on this question in either of those 
countries. So far as I know, no such research has 
been made. There are, however, causes for this 
in addition to those operative in England. In the 
first place, school atendance is compulsory in Ger- 
many at six years of age, not, as with us, at five; 
and there are no municipal infant schools or kin- 



8 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

dergartens. In the United States, even in those 
most progressive educationally, six years is ^he 
usual compulsory school age. In some of the New 
England States, five is the lower limit; but both 
this 'five' and the previous 'six' represent regula- 
tions rather than facts; the average Grade I (about 
half a year's work below our Standard I.) in Amer- 
ica being decidedly old. It is true that some of the 
States have kindergartens which are not compul- 
sory, but attendance therein is not usual before five 
years of age. An admirable opportunity exists for 
measuring the advantages of kindergarten training 
in the States just now, since, at present, the Grade I 
children in many schools are about equally divided 
between those who have and those who have not re- 
ceived it. The application of proper psychological 
exercises would help to solve this important ques- 
tion, but the work has not yet been done. 

In England, attendance is optional at three years 
of age, and does not become compulsory till five. 
A considerable number of children do not begin to 
attend until some months after five, but, after that 
age, the numbers entering are so small in most cases 
that they are hardly worth tabulating. But between 
three and five we have children entering at all ages, 
and it seemed to me that this elasticity gave an ex- 
cellent opportunity for valuable research. Do those 
who enter early make more progress than those 
who enter late I 



II. 

AGE OF ENTRY AND SUBSEQUENT PROGRESS 
IN SENIOR SCHOOLS. 

In Age of Entry we have an independent variable 
of great accuracy and of easy ascertainment. But 
how shall we measure school progress? Schools 
are divided into classes and standards, and, pro- 
vided that we do not lump together the results from 
different schools, we shall find the school standards 
a most valuable aid in our inquiry. This statement 
needs some explanation. Schools differ so much 
in neighbourhood and in the standard of work de- 
manded by their Head Teachers that it would not 
be wise straightwfiy to assume that Standard I. or II. 
or any other standard in one school, indicated the 
same mental proficiency or attainments as in an- 
other school. But in any one school, particularly 
where great care is exercised in the classification of 
the children, it would be correct to suppose that the 
vast bulk of, say, Standard IV. children are more 
developed mentally than those of Standard III., 
Standard III. than Standard II., and so on. But 
what is meant by great care? On the one hand, that 
clever children are promoted though they may be 
young, and on the other hand, that very dull chil- 
dren are not put into classes where the work is be- 
yond their power even if they make due effort. 



10 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

There is a tendency in some cases to put a child 
up because, though not fit, he has already been 
* through,' as it is called, a previous class or stand- 
ard. The expert in school organization will see at 
once that that tendency works against the conclu- 
sion which I believe my figures will establish. 

This short discussion will have already shown that 
progress cannot be considered apart from age; a 
boy of 10 in Standard VI. has obviously made more 
school progress than one of 14 in Standard VII. 
Somehow we must allow for both age and standard. 
There are numerous and complicated and somewhat 
elastic rules governing the question of classification 
by age and standard, and promotion from infants' 
departments to boys' and girls' departments. This 
is not the place for a detailed discussion of these 
rules. Their upshot is that a sort of ideal age for 
each standard emerges on which teachers and in- 
spectors roughly base their judgments. Children are 
supposed to commence their Standard I. work at an 
average age of 6 years 6 months, their Standard II. 
work at 7 years 6 months, their Standard III. work 
at 8 years 6 months, and so on; thus they should 
commence the work of Standard VII. at 12 years 
6 months. This is probably somewhat too high a 
standard for schools in poor or inferior neighbour- 
hoods. Only one of the schools (all good ones) in 
which my investigations were made — a school long 
established in a good neighbourhood with a first- 
rate staff — attained it. But it was useful as a sort 
of guide which teachers well understood. Now, of 
course, some children reached these standards at 
earlier ages than those given above, and some later. 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 11 

Very few were more than two years behind; so I 
took the pupil who was two years behind as being 
accredited with o progress marks, and those who 
were more than two years behind received a nega- 
tive mark. The ages of the children were calculated 
in months, so that a boy two years and one month 
behind would receive a negative mark of one. If he 
were 1 year and 11 months behind he would of course 
receive a positive mark of one ; if he were just right 
his mark would be 24; and if he were one year 
ahead of the normative age — a by no means unusual 
thing — he would receive a positive mark of 36. 
Take one case in illustration. Alfred Brown enters 
Standard IV. when he is 9 years 9 months old; the 
normative age is 9 years 6 months; Brown's prog- 
ress mark is 24 — 3, that is 21. 

We can obviously, with no difficulty except the 
laborious nature of the undertaking, assign a prog- 
ress mark to every child in any school at any time. 
We have merely to take the age in years and months 
when he entered his present standard, and add to, 
or subtract from 24, the months by which he is in 
advance of, or behind, the normative age. It would 
be better to have a normative which was a little 
more normal, but obviously that will not affect our 
figures, which are used only for purposes of com- 
parison within the same school. They are not valid 
for comparison between one school and another, 
since, as I have said above, the standards in one 
school differ from those in another. We have in 
England no Lehrplane as in Germany, nor official 
courses of study as in America; the standards in 
different schools would not be really 'standards' 



12 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

in the scientific sense, if we had ; though there might 
be more uniformity between schools of the same 
type ; for our Lehrplane, if we ever have them again, 
will, I hope, unlike those of America, discriminate 
between schools of different types. 

So far there is little difficulty; but when we set 
out to get the figures which we wish to compare 
with these progress marks, those, namely, relating 
to age of entry, we find that, in whatever school we 
choose, we have a number of children who did not 
commence their school life in that school, but some- 
where else. If in private schools, it would be diffi- 
cult, if not impossible, to get reliable statistics; and 
if in other municipal schools, much correspondence 
would have been involved; and, even if this diffi- 
culty had been surmounted, there would, probably, 
in many cases, have been awkward breaks in the 
school lives of such children that would have ren- 
dered their cases abnormal. One Head Master 
wrote to me thus — "The difficulty of obtaining re- 
liable facts relating to children who have previously 
attended private or other elementary schools makes 
it necessary to ignore those who did not begin in- 
struction in these buildings. The statistics concern- 
ing the latter are absolutely reliable." We, there- 
fore, excluded every child who had at any time at- 
tended any other school. 

In the first school for which the results of this 
inquiry are given, we tabulated the name of every 
child who was on the roll for August 1st, 1905 — 
the first day of the educational year 1905 to 1906 — 
with two exceptions, (1) of children who had at 
any time attended any other school, (2) of one boy 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. lo 

who was subsequently sent to a school for mentally 
defective children. The list appeared thus: 

Standard Age on Progress- 

Name. Age of Entry, on 1, 8, '05. 1, 8, '05. mark. 



Holloway, William, 3 yrs. 1 mth. I 

Mitchell, Richard, 3 yrs. 3 mths. I 

Friend, Victor, 3 yrs. 7 mths. I 

Shillings, Albert, 3 yrs. 5 mths. II 



Moog, Philip, 5 yrs. 4 mths. 



8 yrs. mths. 6 

7 yrs. 10 mths. 8 

8 yrs. 1 mth. 5 
7 yrs. 6 mths. 24 



10 yrs. 10 mths. 20 



If now we collect the progress marks of all chil- 
dren who entered between 3 and 314 years of age, 
and of all those who entered between 31/0 and 4, and 
so on, we ought to see at a glance whether there 
is any marked correlation between the age of en- 
try and subsequent progress in school; provided, 
of course, that the influence of age of entry is not 
obscured by that of any other relevant factor than 
the increased length of school life at any given sub- 
sequent age. Whether there is another factor de- 
pressing or raising the position of those who en- 
tered early as compared with those who entered 
late is a question I will discuss subsequently. For 
the present, I shall suppose that the groups enter- 
ing at different ages between 3 and 5 are of approx- 
imately equal natural ability tcitJiin the same school. 
The last limitation is important, for I am well aware 
that, in London, the age of entry in some suburban 
schools is very late, and it would be unfair to com- 
pare these children with the early groups of poor 
neighbourhoods. This school for which the figures 
are now to be given, was rather a new one; conse- 
quently, we were compelled to cross out a very large 
number of children who had been to other schools; 



14 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

but I selected it because the Head Master, I knew, 
took very great care in classification and neither 
under nor over promoted. The progress marks are 
indeed very satisfactory for a new school contain- 
ing this type of child. I ought perhaps to mention 
that the classification was not made in view of this 
inquiry, which was not begun until November, four 
months after the school had been organized for the 
educational year. 
The results follow: 







TABLE 


I. 








School "0. 


K. 


)? 


Boys. 










Average progress 




Age of entry. 


No, 


. of boys. 


mark per boy. 


M. v.* 


3—31/2 




23 






14.2 


6.2 


31/2—4 




15 






15.3 


5.9 


4— 4y2 




17 






14.1 


6.8 


4y2— 5 




18 






15.0 


6.3 


5-5y2 . 




23 






16.3 


5.7 



Boys who entered after 51/2 years, very few in 
number, were excluded; they were boys who were 
feeble or in ill-health: the large number entering 
after 5 is due, not to the character of the neigh- 
bourhood but, partly at least, to the comparative 
lack of school accommodation before this school 
was opened. 

My reader will see how very close these groups 
are in average progress if he remembers that each 
unit stands for a month only. Thus the 23 boys who 
began school from 3 to 31/2 years of age are 9.8 
months on the average behind the ideal standard 

* M. V. (Mean Variation) is the average deviation of the indi- 
vidual progress marks from the average of the group. The highest 
mean variation differs from the lowest only 'by .6 of a month. 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 15 

for their ages ; the next group is 8.7 months behind, 
and so on. But our interest just now is in the com- 
parative results ; and it is very hard to believe that, 
in this school, the age of entry has been an operative 
factor at all so far as the child's subsequent prog- 
ress is concerned. 

This method of grouped averages, though excel- 
lent for obtaining a general notion of correlation, 
is not adequate to show small amounts of correlation. 
This has, however, been worked out from the indi- 
vidual cases by the Pearson formula, and gives a 
coefficient of +.07 with a probable error of .07. One 
cannot draw an inference either way from this re- 
sult, except that no correlation exists ; one may, how- 
ever, remember that, as we are correlating age of 
entry and progress marks, a positive coefficient is 
against early entry. 

I have given the results of the above boys' school 
first, because the numbers were small and easy to 
manipulate; it was not, however, the one in which 
my first investigation was made. That was also a 
boys' school, one situated in a good neighbourhood, 
long established and popular, though not very large. 

The inquiry was commenced in June, 1905. All 
the boys in the school were placed on our list, except 
those who had previously attended any other 
school, public or private. Every boy included, there- 
fore, had attended the corresponding infants ' depart- 
ment, the very few who had commenced their school 
attendance at a very late age in the boys' depart- 
ment itself being excluded. 



16 



WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 



As before, certain particulars were supplied for 
each pupil, and were set out as follows: 



Name. 

Beamish, Lawrence, 
Piper, Harold, 



Age of admission 
to Infants' dept. 

3 yrs. 2 mths. 
3 yrs. 3 mths. 



Ward, Charles, 5 yrs. 5 mths. 

Total, 195 boys. 



Present 
standard. 

II. 
II. 

vii.' 



Age on 
30, 6, '05. 

8 yrs. 8 mths. 
8 yrs. I mth. 

14 yrs. 3 mths. 



Each boy then received a progress mark calcu- 
lated in the way previously explained. The pupils 
had worked for 11 months in their present standards, 
and this, of course, had to be allowed for. Thus 11 
months were deducted from the present age of each 
pupil if, as was almost invariably the case, he had 
been placed in his present standard at the commence- 
ment of the current educational year. 

I propose to present first the final summary of the 
results.. 

TABLE II. 

School "L." Boys. 







Average progress 




Lge of entry. 


No. of children. 


mark per boy. 


M. V. 


3—31/2 


38 


23.4 


5.3 


3^2—4 


40 


21.9 


7.8 


4— 4y2 


47 


23.0 


8.6 


41/2—5 


28 


22.5 


4.3 


5—51/3 


39 


22.1 


7.6 



It will help us clearly to comprehend the great 
similarity between the progress of these five groups 
if we remember that this table means that the first 
group (those that enter from 3 to Syo years of age) 
are, on the average, .6 months below the normative 
standard for their age: the second group, on the av- 
erage, 2.1 months below: the third group, 1 month 
below: the fourth, 1.5 months below: and the fifth, 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 17 

1.9 months below. The differences in the progress 
of the various groups are extremely small. It is not, 
however, unreasonable to suggest that the earlier 
entering groups may show more advance in the 
lower standards than those entering later, and that 
this difference gradually disappears ; or perhaps, as 
would be necessary if the average progress mark 
for the various groups of all standards together 
remains approximately the same, that a reverse dif- 
ference appears in the upper standards. The fol- 
lowing classification will help us to test this supposi- 
tion. 

TABLE III. 
School "L." Boys. 









Average progress 








mark to 


Age of entry. 


No. of boys. 


standard. 


nearest unit. 


3—31/2 


7 


II. 


26 


31/2—4 


3 


II. 


21 


4—41/2 


8 


II. 


19 


41/.— 5 


5 


II. 


22 


5—51/2 


6 


II. 


22 


3—31/2 


7 


III. 


27 


3y2— 4 


7 


III. 


24 


4— 4y2 


8 


III. 


25 


41/2—5 


6 


III. 


21 


5-^1/2 


7 


III. 


25 


3—31/2 


8 


IV. 


22 


31/2—4 


6 


IV. 


24 


4—41/2 


7 


IV. 


23 


41/2—5 


5 


IV. 


23 


5—51/, 


8 


IV. 


20 


3—31/2 


4 


v. 


23 


3y2— 4 


12 


V. 


20 


4—41/2 


10 


V. 


27 


4y2— 5 


5 


V. 


27 


5—51/2 


3 


V. 


32 


3—31/2 


7 


VI. 


25 


31/0—4 


6 


VI. 


18 


4—41/2 


6 


VI. 


17 


41/2—5 


3 


VI. 


22 


5—51/2 


5 


VI. 


14 


3— 3y2 


5 


VII. 


15 


31/2-^ 


7 


VII. 


26 


4— 4y2 


4 


VII. 


25 


41/2—5 


8 


VII. 


18 


5— 51/a 


7 


VII. 


24 



18 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

A comparison of the progress marks of the early- 
entering groups with those of the later entering 
groups in each standard separately (the school con- 
tained no Standard I. children) will show that this 
supposition is untenable. Teachers will note the 
low progress marks of Standard VI., but will at 
once understand when I tell them that there were 
two divisions of Standard VII. 

But a still further issue may be legitimately 
raised. It may be fairly urged that the early groups, 
though not in a higher standard for their age than 
the groups who entered late, are yet decidedly su- 
perior within those standards. To test this ques- 
tion would, under ordinary circumstances, have 
been a task of extreme difficulty ; but the Head Mas- 
ter of this school was one who kept the records of 
his terminal examinations with exceptional care and 
conducted his tests with exceptional thoroughness. 
He had, moreover, in each standard, given 25 marks 
for each subject, so that there was plenty of room 
for variation ; and, further, it was easily possible to 
find for every boy an average mark per subject. It 
would be quite impossible without enormously swell- 
ing the contents of this monograph, to give all the 
exercises set. Suffice it to say that they ranged from 
Reading, Writing, Spelling, Arithmetic and Drawing 
in Standard II. to Reading, Spelling, Composition, 
Arithmetic (Rule Sums and Problems) Mental Arith- 
metic, Arithmetical Computation, Algebra, and 
Drawing in Standard VII. The examination had 
been conducted some months before and was not 
undertaken for the purpose, or with the knowledge, 
of this approaching inquiry. 

I append the final summary of the marks gained : 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PEOGRESS. 19 





TABLE IV. 






School "L." Boys. 




Age of entry. 


No. of children. 


Average mark pe 
boy per subject. 


3— 3Y2 
SVa— 4 

4— 4y2 
4y2— 5 
5— 5y2 


38 
40 
47 
28 
39 


21.5 
21.5 
20.5 
21.9 

21.2 



It is, I think, fair to conclude from this table that 
the children had not been classified on an age basis, 
but on an ability basis ; for if old children, entering 
school late, had been put forward simply because 
they were old, we should have discovered it by a 
rapidly decreasing examination mark for the late 
entering groups. The outstanding result is the ex- 
traordinary closeness of the progress and class pro- 
ficiency of these five groups. These results give no 
countenance to the view that early entry into school 
results, later on, in greater proficiency and prog- 
ress. I was not prepared for such a result, for I 
certainly expected that the grouj^ which entered 
after 5 would show an appreciable falling off, either 
in their progress in the standards or in their com- 
parative proficiency within their standards. 

That these tabulated results are not adventitious 
ones may be shown in a variety of ways, of which 
the subjoined analysis is one: 



:U WHEN 


SHOULD A 


CHILD BEGIN 


SCHOOL. 




TABLE 


V. 






School ''L." 


Boys. 












Average marl 

per boy 

per subject. 


Age of entry. 


standard. 




No. of boys, 


3— 3y2 


ir. 




7 


22.1 




III. 




7 


22.0 




IV. 




8 


20.6 




V. 




4 


21.0 




VI. 




7 


21.8 




VII. 




5 


21.3 


3y2— 4 


II. 




3 


22.3 




III. 




7 


22.0 




IV. 




6 


21.0 




V. 




12 


23.0 




VI. 




6 


21.7 




VII. 




6 


21.0 


4—4V2 


II. 




8 


17.3 




III. 




8 


22.2 




IV. 




7 


20.4 




V. 




10 


20.2 




VI. 




6 


20.8 




VII. 




8 


22.2 


4^2—5 


II. 




5 


21.6 




III. 




6 


22.3 




IV. 




5 


21.1 




V. 




5 


22.6 




VI. 




3 


20.6 




VII. 




4 


22.3 


5—51/0 


II. 




6 


21.1 




III. 




7 


21.6 




IV. 




8 


20.8 




V. 




3 


20.8 




VI. 




5 


19.7 




VII. 




10 


22.0 



The earliest entering groups have a slightly 
higher mark in Standard II. than the later entering 
groups : in III. the mark is practically identical for 
all ages of entry: in IV. it is practically identical 
throughout : in V. the 314 — 4 and 4i/4 — 5 groups are 
the best : in VI. the early entering groups are better 
than the later ones : in VII. VIII. the later entering 
groups are better than the earlier entering ones. Our 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 21 

only conclusion can be that early or late entry is an 
unimportant factor within each class. 

We have now a mark for each child called the 
progress mark, which depends on the standard he 
has reached at his present age : we have also a ter- 
minal examination mark, which shows how he stands 
within that standard. We can see, by referring to 
our tables, that the group entering from 3 — 3i/^ 
years have a progress mark of 23.4 with an exam- 
ination mark of 21.5, and so on. 

It will be of service if I give the two sets of re- 
sults side by side. 





TABLE VI. 






School 


''L." Boys. 




Ago of entry. 


No. of boys. 


Average progress 
mark. 


Average 

examlnatioii 

mark. 


3— SVa 
3y2-4 

4— 4y2 
4y2— 5 

5— 5y2 


38 
40 

47 
28 
39 


23.4 
21.9 
23.0 
22.5 
22.1 


21.5 
21.5 

20.5 
21.9 
21.2 



Considering both these values it will be seen that 
the 3 to 31/2 group and the 41/. to 5 group are the 
most proficient, while the three remaining groups 
are practically identical. 

But, after all, these are results for one school only, 
and one well situated in a good neighbourhood. We 
have, however, to remember that they correspond, 
so far as the relative progress of the different 
groups within the same school is concerned, with 
those of the former school "0. K.", which was situ- 
ated in a neighborhood very different from that of 
the school just referred to. 



22 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

Perhaps I may say a word here as to the lump- 
ing together of results which I deprecated in the 
explanation of my method. If we had put these two 
schools together let us see what would have hap- 
pened. I pass over, for a moment, the considera- 
tion that the "standards" of work were not likely 
to be the same; they did, as a fact, closely approxi- 
mate. 

TABLE VII. 



, School "O. K." , , School "L." , 

Average 

progress Average progress 

Age of entry. No. of boys. mark. No. of boys. mark. 

3—31/2 23 14.2 38 23.4 

3yo— 4 15 15.3 40 21.9 

4—41/2 17 14.1 47 23.0 

4i/,_5 18 15.0 28 22.5 

5—51/2 23 16.3 39 22.1 

Obviously the results from the second school, 
with its larger numbers and higher progress marks, 
would, if we had combined the results, have swamped 
those from the first school. Whereas, by taking them 
separately, we find that quite a different rate of 
progress per age is, nevertheless, accompanied by 
the same steady resemblance between the groups 
entering early and those entering late. 

One word to teachers. The school "0. K." was 
just as good a school as School ''L.," its lower 
progress marks depended (1) on the fact that it 
was relatively new, (2) on the fact that it was in a 
different neighbourhood and was attended by chil- 
dren of different birth and social environment. (On 
this latter question I hope to publish some definite 
work in the near future.) 

I now pass from these schools to another, which 
was nearer in social type to School "L.," but shared 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 23 

with School "0. K." the disadvantage of being 
somewhat new. Teachers will understand without 
argument that, in a new school, if anywhere, the 
ages of the children, in the lower standards at least, 
are apt to be high; and progress, measured by age 
and standard, is apt to be low. But, as before, we 
are concerned, not with the general progress of the 
school, but with the comparative progress of the 
children entering early and those entering late. As on 
the previous occasion, every child was excluded whose 
whole school life was not passed within the school 
itself. The cordial co-operation of the three head 
teachers — the Infants' Mistress, the Girls' Mistress, 
and the Head Master of the Boys' School working 
together — made the investigation easy and rapid. 
The name of every child on the roll on the 31st of 
July preceding the investigation (which took place 
some months later) was placed on a list, together 
with the following particulars collected from the 
school registers. It was not known beforehand that 
such an investigation would be made. 

Present Age on entering 

Name. standard. Age on 31, 7, '05. school. 

Buerley. Alfred, VII. 12yrs. 3 mths. 4 yrs. 7 mths. 

Ck)x, Sidney, VII. 13 yrs. 7 mths. 5 yrs. 1 mth. 



Swift, Percy, I. 8 yrs. 4 mths. 4 yrs. 5 mths. 

Three boys were excluded who had been absent 
through illness for very long periods. The Head 
Teacher thought it unfair to put these in, and I 
concurred in his judgment. Then to every boy was 
allotted a progress mark in the way already ex- 
plained. And, finally, the results were tabulated as 
before. 



24 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

TABLE VIII. 
School ''G." Boys. 







A^verage progress 




Age of entry. 


No. of children. 


mark. 


M. V. 


3—3^2 


12 


20.6 


8.0 


3y2-4 


7 


19.4 


9.3 


4— 4y3 


8 


21.6 


7.6 


4y2— 5 


16 


19.0 


6.4 


5— 5y2 


12 


15.4 


5.8 


Sya— 6 


2 


17.0 


4.0 



It cannot be denied that there is a drop in the 
last two groups, of which the figures of the first 
four groups give no indication ; so I thought it well 
in this case, as the numbers were small, to arrange 



the children in a list showing 



Name. 


R. 


R. 




C. 


H. 




C. 


R. 


H. 


S. 


P. 


R. 


S. 


S. 



Age of entry in Progress 

months. marks. 

36 29 

43 3 



61 21 

63 23 

67 21 

67 13 



and then to work out the correlation from the indi- 
vidual results. The table above is, of course, a sum- 
mary of such a list, but it deals with averages only. 
If the correlation between age of entry and prog- 
ress is worked out by the Pearson formula from 
the individual cases, we find that it amounts to 
— .1727 with a ''probable error" of .09. Consid- 
ering the size of the probable error in its rela- 
tion to the correlation coefficient, our only safe 
conclusion is the absence of correlation. But we 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 25 

have the further consideration which I attempted 
to deal with in School "L.," namely, is the classi- 
fication itself a proper one, or is it based on age 
apart from ability? Here again, the examinations 
of the Head Teachers were of very great service. 
Those of the Head Master were indeed conducted 
with a quite unusual thoroughness and his ques- 
tions were very searching. In the upper standards 
it was possible to obtain individual marks for Bead- 
ing, Writing, Spelling, Composition, English Gram- 
mar, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geography and History; 
and in the lower standards for Reading, Writing, 
Spelling, Composition and Arithmetic. The maxi- 
mum mark for each subject was 10, so that it was 
quite easy to obtain an average terminal examina- 
tion mark for each subject for each boy. This was 
done and the marks collected and summarized. 





TABLE 


IX. 






School ''G." 


' Boys. 


re of entry. 

3—31/2 

31/2—4 

4—41/2 

41/2—5 

5—51/2 


No. of pupils. 
12 

7 

8 
16 
12 




Average examination mark 
per subject per child. 

7.5 

7.2 
7.9 
7.9 

7.7 



It is fairly obvious that the later entering groups 
have not been classified above their powers because 
of their age, as there is some tendency to do in a 
new school. On the contrary, the two groups which 
entered earliest seem to show a slight inferiority 
within their standards, and the later entering pupils 
might, in comparison with the others, have been put 
a little higher without danger. 



26 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

Let US turn now to the Girls' Department of the 
same school. It will be enough here if I give the 
summarized results. One child, whose attendance 
had been interrupted by a very long illness, was 
omitted. 







TABLE 


X. 








School 


"G." 


Girls. 














Average 














progress 




Age of entry. 


No. 


of children. 




mark. 


M. V 


3—31/2 




7 






19.0 


9.4 


31/2—4 




4 






20.7 


2.4 


4—41/2 




15 






20.8 


7.1 


4y2— 5 




10 






20.5 


6.3 


5-51/2 




25 






19.3 


5.0 



There seems a slight falling off of those who en- 
ter after 5 years of age; but even then they are 
rather more forward for their age than those who 
enter at 3 to 31/2 years; but, in any case, (our units 
are months, be it remembered) the differences are 
exceedingly slight. Worked out from individual 
cases by the Pearson formula, the correlation be- 
tween age of entry and school progress is found 
to be — .0116 ; and this is well within the limit of the 
''probable error," which amounts to .08. 

But again we have to ask ourselves if the chil- 
dren are properly classified, and fortunately there 
is again at our service an excellent set of school 
records. In the upper standards, individual marks 
had been given for Reading, Writing, Spelling, 
Composition, Written Arithmetic, Mental Arithme- 
tic, Elementary Science, Needlework, Geography, 
History, and English Grammar; and even in the 
lowest standards, in Reading, Writing, Spelling and 
Arithmetic. The maximum mark for each subject 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 27 

was 10, SO that it was quite easy to get an average 
mark per subject for each child as before. Sum- 
marizing these we obtained the following table: 

TABLE XI. 
School ''G." Girls. 

Average progress Average examination 



Age of entry. 


No. of children. 


mark. 


mar 


3—31/2 


7 


19.0 


7.9 


31/2^ 


4 


20.7 


8.2 


-4—41/2 


15 


20.8 


7.0 


4%— 5 


10 


20.5 


7.8 


5-51/2 


25 


19.3 


8.2 



One group is decidedly weaker, and it looks as 
if some slight over-promotion had taken place, since 
this group is furthest forward for its age. But 
the striking thing is the almost exact resemblance 
between the early and late entering groups; and 
the general results are a testimonial to the good 
classification of the school and an indication of the 
non-importance of earliness or lateness of entry. 

Let me now deal with a Boys' school of different 
type, long established, and in a poor neighborhood — 
though not itself attended by very poor children — 
with a strong Head Master, but a staff gradually 
weakening by promotion and transfer. The popu- 
lation, like that of School ''L," is a stable one, and 
the majority of the children had passed their whole 
school life within the walls of the one school. We 
excluded all who had entered later than 5 years 6 
months, and two children who had entered before 
3 years of age. 

I do not propose to recount the method adopted 
to make out the preliminary schedules, nor how the 
progress marks were awarded; my reader will, by 



28 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

now, be quite clear on these points. Nor shall I 
again relate how the classification was checked by 
means of the Master's Terminal Examinations. Of 
the latter I thought so highly that, when acting as 
Inspector to the school, I modified my own assess- 
ments of his staff, against my own opinion, in the 
direction indicated by his examinations. The labour 
and care he bestowed upon them were very great. 
Even in Standard I. each boy received an individ- 
ual mark in Beading, Writing, Spelling, Arith- 
metic, English, Geography, Knowledge of Objects 
and Drawing. In Standard II., in addition, a mark 
was given for Knowledge of Historical Tales 
and for Composition. In Standard V., Elementary 
Chemistry and Botany were added. The mark for 
each subject after Standard V. was 50 instead of 
10; but, as in preceding cases, we found an average 
mark per subject for each child on the basis of 10 
as a maximum. I was careful to note that the adop- 
tion of a higher maximum in the upper standards 
had not involved either a higher or lower percent- 
age of possible marks than in the standards with a 
lower maximum mark per subject; so that no sta- 
tistical difficulties occurred in adding together the 
average marks for children from different stand- 
ards. 

I propose to give the summarized table only. 







TABLE XII. 






School '^S, 


." Boys. 












Average terminal 




No. of 


Average prosress 


examination mark 


re of entry. 


boys. 


mark 


per child. 


per child per subject. 


3—31/0 


55 




19.8 


6.2 


31/0—4 


21 




16.9 


6.1 


4r-^l/2 


33 




19.6 


6.6 


41/2—5 


26 




17.0 


6.6 


5—51/2 


35 




18.0 


6.5 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 29 

That the children are not over-promoted on ac- 
count of their age is shown by the fact that the late 
entering groups are higher up in their standards 
than those entering earlier; but then, of course, 
they are not quite so advanced for their ages. The 
children entering from 3i/^ to 4 are decidedly the 
weakest group; they are not so far forward in the 
school, nor do they stand as well within their classes 
as the other groups. The Head Master and myself 
went carefully through the group, but could find no 
reason except comparative inferiority in natural 
endowments. This group of children contained a 
rather larger number of those who came from 
'poor' homes than those of the other groups, and 
the bearing of this factor on the results I hope to 
consider presently. I need hardly say that by 
'poor' home I mean something not necessarily con- 
nected with a small family income. 

At the same time as this investigation was made 
in the Boys' Department of School "S," a similar 
inquiry was proceeding in the Girls' Department. 
The Head Mistress was new and the previous Mis- 
tress had spent about three or four years only in 
the School. The latter had, however, very greatly 
improved an organization which, a few years be- 
fore, had brought a reproof from His Majesty's In- 
spector on account of the high ages of many chil- 
dren in the lower classes. I do not, therefore, feel 
so much confidence in the results as in the other 
cases I have given, for, as teachers and organizers 
well know, it takes several years to set right an 
unsatisfactory organization; even the process of 
setting it right often means setting it wrong in an- 



30 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

other way; for to make the average ages appear 
satisfactory for the different standards, it is the 
very bright and willing child who is often put un- 
duly forward, whilst the older and heavier-witted 
child may be left behind. However, as I intend to 
give the results for every school in which the in- 
quiry was made, I present below those of Girls' 
School S. 

TABLE XIII. 

School ''S." Girls. 











Average terminal 




No. of 


Average progress 


examini 


ition mark 


;e of entry. 


children. 


mark 


per child. 


per child 


per subject. 


3—31/2 


61 




19.4 




7.6 


31/0—4 


46 




17.9 




7.5 


4—41/2 


45 




20.8 




7.4 


41/2—5 


31 




16.3 




7.3 


5—51/2 


41 




13.7 




7.2 



There is certainly an indication afforded by these 
averages that an entrance age later than 41/2 or 5 
years has been followed by some retardation in 
subsequent progress; the great similarity between 
the examination marks of the groups entering at 
different ages shows the present classification to be 
a good one. 

The next results which I present to the reader 
are those from a school of a rather different type 
from any of those heretofore given. This is a large 
and well-established girls' school, pleasantly situ- 
ated in a good neighbourhood. It contains a very 
small number of children from 'poor' homes. It 
is very efficient educationally, is called a Higher 
Grade School, and deserves the name. A very con- 
siderable number of children come after 5 years of 
age, and a fair number do not commence their 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PEOGEESS. 31 

school attendance till after they have reached 6 
years of age. The infants' department had been 
known for years as one in which "Kindergarten" 
methods had been in use; in the opinion of the 
teachers in the girls' department, their use had, in- 
deed, been unduly prolonged, that is, continued after 
the children were fit for definite preparatory teach- 
ing. I will speak of the influence of the form of 
early instruction on subsequent school progress in 
a later section. 

I propose to give in the summary below all chil- 
dren on the roll on the 1st of August, 1905, exclud- 
ing all those who had at any time attended any 
other school, public or private. 





TABLE 


XIV. 






School " 


R. 


" Girls 










Average progress 


Age of entry. 


No. of girls. 






mark per child. 


3—31/2 


32 






17.9 


31/2—4 


26 






13.6 


4-^y2 


30 






13.7 


41/2—5 


63 






19.7 


5—51/2 


64 






16.4 


5y2— 6 


13 






11.7 


6— 6 1/2 


9 






15.2 


6 1/2— 7 


4 






21.0 



In the first place I would remind teachers who 
think the progress mark somewhat low for a school 
of this kind that there were causes other (if that 
was a cause) than the unusual prolongation of 
''Kindergarten" teaching in the infants' depart- 
ment. As a Higher Grade School, this school had 
been working for years up to a curriculum which 
was very heavy in the upper classes, and which any 
child who was much below the average could not 



32 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

hope to undertake. The range of work, if not the 
standard required, was necessarily high. I very 
much regret that I did not think of getting the ter- 
minal examination marks until too late. It is cer- 
tainly impossible to conclude from this table of av- 
erages that there is any advantage in commencing 
school before 5 years of age; indeed, if we put to- 
gether all children coming in between 3 and 4 years 
of age, and all those coming in between 4 and 5, 
we find the average progress mark of the former 
to be 16.0 and of the latter to be 17.7. I do not 
consider my inquiry to be of so much service after 
the entering age of 5i/^ years is reached. The par- 
ents of the children attending these schools are law- 
abiding persons and would not keep their children 
at home much after five years without adequate rea- 
sons, instruction given at home being one of these. 
Indeed after 51/2, there is an element of selection 
coming in which I have not allowed for, so I lay 
no stress on the result. It does appear, however, 
that the next two groups, namely, those entering 
from 5 to 6 years are not much behind the groups 
entering from 3 to 4; their average progress mark 
is 15.7. The next group is, perhaps, too small and 
the circumstances of the children too special for us 
to feel much confidence in our conclusions. Still 
it may be interesting to note that the children en- 
tering from 6 to 7 years of age have a progress 
mark of 17.0. 

It is obvious that, if there is any advantage in 
early entry in this school, it is not apparent from 
the average results. Let us, therefore, as usual in 
cases of doubt, apply the formula of correlation. 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. do 

The result is found to be — .01003, which is con- 
clusive as to the unimportance of the age of entry 
within the limits dealt with. 

The next results presented will be those from a 
Boys' School situated in a poor neighbourhood, and 
attended by children of a rather poorer type, per- 
haps, than those of School "0. K." It is not 
necessary to give again an account of the method 
pursued in the investigation. We dealt as before 
with every child on the roll on a given date, ex- 
cluding those who had at any time attended any 
other school. 

I need hardly say that the school had not been 
organized in any expectation of this inquiry. Nor, 
in this case, had there been any expectation of it, 
would there have been any attempt whatever to 
make any alteration in consequence. The Head 
Master's records of progress had been the subject 
of encomiastic comment from His Majesty's Inspec- 
tor, and he was known by the Inspectors of the Lo- 
cal Authority as an exact and careful judge of the 
quality of the work of his school. 

I give first the general results expressed in av- 
erages. 

TABLE XV. 
School' 'S. A." Boys. 

Age of commencement of 
school life. 

3—3% 

31/2—4 

4— 4y2 
4y2— 5 

5— SVa 

There is no doubt at all that we have now found 
a rapid falling-away after the entrance age of 4i/^ 





Average progress 


No. of boys. 


mark. 


62 


15.7 


35 


11.7 


35 


16.2 


25 


9.8 


17 


5.0 



34 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

is passed. It seems a little too sudden, perhaps, 
to be dependent merely on five or six months' less 
tuition; still we cannot deny that it is there. Some- 
thing of this sort, though more gradual, I had ex- 
pected to find before. As a matter of fact, it 
was, as my reader is by this time aware, an al- 
most unique result. The 17 boys who had entered 
from 5 — 51/2 years had an average progress mark 
of 5 only, an extraordinarily low figure. It means 
that these boys were, on the average, 19 months be- 
hind the position required by normative progress. 
Need I say that, if the standards are to be alike 
for all schools, the normative is pitched too high 
for schools in such neighbourhoods as this 1 But we 
are now, of course, dealing with comparative groups 
within the same school, and, whatever the norma- 
tive may be, our table of comparisons is not af- 
fected. These children were emphatically a non- 
progressive group, and they came to school late. 
Perhaps the organization of the boys' school was 
at fault. Perhaps these children were put in lower 
classes than they should have been. I have al- 
ready spoken of the care with which the school ex- 
aminations were conducted and of the excellence 
with which the school records were kept. All sub- 
jects of examination had received 10 as a maximum 
mark, so that there was no difficulty in obtaining 
an average mark per boy per subject, and this, as 
before, is called his terminal examination mark. 
The summarized results will, I think, make it clear 
that these boys had not been "under-promoted." 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 35 

TABLE XVI. 

School ''S. A." Boys. 







Average terminal 


;e of entry. 


No. of boys. 


examination mark. 


3—31/2 


62 


6.1 


31/2—4 


34* 


6.8 


4—41/2 


35 


6.5 


41/2—5 


25 


6.3 


5— 51^ 


17 


6.3 



The late-entering groups seemed not only to have 
made poor progress but were rather below the av- 
erage in their classes. Our next step was to go in- 
dividually through the cases of every boy in the 
group entering from 5 to 51/2 years of age. Six of 
the boys were marked physically feeble or under- 
fed, which was rather a large number out of a total 
of 17. Still, even eliminating these, the mark was 
very low. At this juncture, it was thought it would 
be well to trace the school career of every child who 
had entered the Senior department from the In- 
fants' school for a number of years past, and to 
assess their progress as measured by their age and 
present standard or the last standard they reached 
before they left. This was, of course, a task of ex- 
treme laboriousness and occupied several weeks. 
Nor would it have been possible at all had not this 
Head Teacher been in the habit, for years, of en- 
tering in certain appropriate columns in his Admis- 
sion Eegister, the date at which successive stand- 
ards were reached by his pupils, together with cer- 
tain particulars as to the cause of leaving. En pas- 
sant, may I say that a continuation of these records 
in the direction of ascertaining what becomes of 

*One 'boy shown in this group in the preceding table was absent 
from the terminal examinations through illness. 



ob WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

school children after they leave day schools is, in 
my judgment, not only of practical importance, but 
full of value for a real science of sociology? How- 
ever, our present inquiry is fully provided for by 
the accurate and extensive records already kept in 
this department. The school progress of every boy 
who had entered from the Infants ' department from 
July, 1898, to July, 1905, inclusive, excluding as be- 
fore, all children who had ever attended any other 
school, was traced from beginning to end. We found 
out, if the child was no longer present in the school, 
when and why he left, how old he was when he 
left, at what age he entered the Boys' department, 
what standard he had reached when he left, and, 
of course, at what age he entered the Infants' de- 
partment. 

Summarising as before we find : — 





TABLE XVII. 






School '' 


= S. A." 


Boys. 


Average progress 


Age of entry. 


No. 


of boys. 




mark. 


3—31/2 




102 




15.4 


31/2—4 




60 




11.5 


4—41/2 




60 




13.6 


41/2—5 




42 




10.9 


5—51/2 




26 




4.4 



The evidence from the preceding table is strik- 
ingly corroborated; there is no doubt at all that, 
after an entrance age of 4i/^, there is a drop, and 
a very considerable one, in the progress of the chil- 
dren who come later; the group entering from 5 to 
51/2 years are three-fourths of a year behind, on the 
average, in the highest standard reached either now 
or when they left the school. How were we to ex- 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 37 

plain this striking difference between the results 
from this and from other schools'? A closer analy- 
sis enabled us to settle the question. We again 
considered the 5 to 51/0 group dealt with in the first 
table given for this school, and found out that all 
the children were so old when they entered the 
Boys' department that their promotion from the In- 
fants' school was compulsory under the age clause; 
and further — a much more serious matter — that 
only 4 out of the 17 had ever been placed in 
the Standard I. class in the Infants' department. 
All the rest had to do the work of Standard I. for 
the first time in the Boys' department. No child 
had been less than 2 years 4 months in the Infants' 
school — their average was 2 years 8 months; so 
there had been plenty of time, considering the age 
at which they entered, to have done the work of 
Standard I. Why had this not been done? A 
search through the Infants' school records showed 
that, for some years, the top of the school had been 
congested, and the Head Mistress had been told 
that she must keep the numbers down in certain 
rooms at each yearly promotion. Therefore, the 
rooms containing the higher classes would be as 
full as she was permitted to make them with the 
earlier entering children who came up from the 
lower classes. Older children, entering afterwards, 
would, perforce, be put down in lower classes 
among much younger children, and were put for- 
ward only when these young ones were put for- 
ward; they, therefore, passed out of the Infants' 
school old and backward, and never wholly caught 
up the loss they had sustained. This is not the 



do WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

place to discuss the question as to the absolute 
necessity for the above-sketched organization of the 
Infants' department; it was certainly one which 
was natural enough under the circumstances and 
fully accounts for the unusual results obtained 
from this Boys' department. This, of course, is a 
school in a poor neighbourhood and, at first sight, 
we might think that fact has atfected our results. 
We may note that between 20 per cent, and 30 per 
cent, of the late entering group came from specially 
"poor" homes (those who enter late are usually 
supposed to come from good homes, by the way), 
but that issue must wait for the present. I am by 
no means unmindful of its importance. 

Then, I think we may fairly conclude that, so far 
as intellectual results are concerned, and in so far 
as these are measured by school progress, we can 
claim no advantage for early entry into school ; that 
is, children who enter at 3 years of age progress 
neither more rapidly nor more decisively than those 
who enter at 5. I do not consider that the evidence 
is satisfactory for entrance ages beyond 5 years, 
as the numbers are small, and the children who be- 
gin so late (after the compulsory age) are often 
unusual in health or in home circumstances. I con- 
clude, however, with confidence that, as far as sub- 
sequent school progress is concerned, it is of trifling 
importance, if not absolutely unimportant, whether 
a child begins school at 3 or at 5 years of age. 



III. 

AGE OF ENTRY AND PROGRESS IN INFANTS' 
DEPARTMENTS. 

But it might, perhaps, be contended that, though 
the difference in the progress of different groups 
disappears after the senior school is reached, 
there is yet a perceptible difference if we measure 
progress in the Infants' department itself. The In- 
fants' department of School "0. K." was well 
known to me as a thoroughly efficient school, in 
which the Head Mistress classified carefully on the 
basis of the children's natural capacity, as far as 
possible. It is, of course, not wholly possible. If 
the work of the school is arranged in proper se- 
quence and duly graded, attainments must also 
count as a factor in promotion. We scheduled the 
name of every child who would be seven years of 
age before the end of the current educational year, 
excluding, as before, all those who had at any time 
attended any other school. Then we considered 
their class or standard in relation to the age at 
which they entered it, and gave each child a prog- 
ress mark on the basis before described. 



M. V. 
3.0 
2.4 
2.3 
3.4 
3.0 





TABLE XVIII. 




School ''0. 


K. 


' ' Infants. 


; of entry. 


No. of 
children. 




Average progress 
mark per child. 


3—31/2 
31/2—4 
4-^1/2 
41/2—5 
5—51/2 


u 

12 

6 

13 

4 




19.1 
19.0 
19.0 
20.2 
20.0 



40 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

From these figures, if we are dealing with groups 
of approximately equal ability, we can only con- 
clude that there may be a slight educational disad- 
vantage in early attendance at school. 

But a still further question might be raised. It 
may be that the advantage of early attendance is 
present, but is too slight to make a difference to the 
class or standard in which the child is placed. 
Closer inquiry may discover that the children who 
commence school early are somewhat superior to 
others of the same age, though they may be in the 
same classes. I, myself, expected this to be the 
case. It is the ordinary opinion of Head Teachers 
in Infant schools, and I shared that opinion. 

To test this point all the children who would be 
seven years of age at the end of the current educa- 
tional year were given a terminal examination with 
which special care was taken. It was conducted 
jointly by the Head Teachers of the Boys' and 
Infants' departments, who set the exercises and 
marked the work done. Teachers who read this 
paper will, naturally and rightly, wish to know what 
exercises were given, and the standard of marking 
that was adopted. I give these in the teachers' own 
words. I do not claim that these tests are always 
the best psychologically that could be used ; but they 
certainly give an adequate estimate of progress as 
it is measured in good schools. The work was done 
in November, eight months before the end of the 
current educational year, and was what is known as 
the Christmas terminal examination. 

I need, perhaps, hardly say that the questions 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 41 

were chosen so that the very best pupils in each sub- 
ject could get the maximum mark and the worst 
could just do something. 

Reading. The children read from Collins' At- 
tractive Readers. Eight marks were given for cor- 
rect reading and two additional ones for expressive 
reading. Two marks were taken off for errors and 
omissions, and one for words indistinctly pro- 
nounced. 

Transcription. The children copied from Collins' 
Attractive Reader, page 22, paragraph 1. A maxi- 
mum of 10 marks was allowed, one being subtracted 
for each letter wrongly formed. 

Spelling. The following ten words were dictated 
— bird, said, eggs, which, foot, arms, home, they, 
poor, meat. One mark was given for each word 
correctly spelt. 

English Composition. A large picture of an 
ostrich was hung before the children, and they were 
asked to write down anything they saw in it or 
thought about it. Thirty-five minutes were allowed 
for this. Every intelligible statement received a 
mark up to a maximum of 10, irrespective of spell- 
ing, punctuation or construction. 

Written Arithmetic. Four sets of sums were 
given, Set A, Set B, Set C, Set D. Two marks were 
given for each correct answer and two for clear- 
ness of arrangement generally. One set is given 
below as a sample : 

SetA.— 1. Add together 5, 13. 42, 20. 

2. Add together 10, 8, 33, 24. 

3. 8+184-30+13. 

4. From 87 take 37. 



42 



WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 



Mental Arithmetic. Four problems were asked 
with one step in each and two problems were asked 
with two steps in each. Correct answers to the 
former carried one mark and to the latter two 
marks. 

Drawing (for boys). A free-hand exercise was 
placed on the blackboard; it was a diagrammatic 
drawing of a straw hat (boater). An exercise in 
ruler work was also given. Five marks as a maxi- 
mum were given to each exercise. 

Needlework (for girls). A strip of calico, 5 
inches by 21/2 inches, was hemmed in two colors 
showing a join. The maximum mark was 10. 

The results were tabulated as follows: 

TABLE XIX. 
School "0. K." Infants. 



Name. 



aiS 



^ 5 





Ma 
■<j 


a 
'"5 

CO 


a 




M 


s 





0) 

a 

< 




a 
C 





4) 
es 


> 
<1 


Nunn, Wm., 


7.3 


4 


3 


3 


1 





6 


4 




3.0 


Pavey, Wm., 


7.6 


10 


8 

and 


9 
SO 


9 

on. 


10 


6 


7 




8.4 



Then they were collected into five groups as be- 
fore, according to the age at which the children 
commenced their school life. 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 43 

TABLE XX. 
School "0. K." Infants. 









Average mark per 








No. 


of 


subject. 




Average age 


Age of entry. 


ehlldi 


ren. 


Maximum 10. 


M. V. 


on 31, 7, '06. 


3—31/2 


14 




6.3 


1.6 


7 yrs. 11 mths. 


3 V,— 4 


12 




6.8 


1.6 


7 yrs. 11 mths. 


4-4% 


6 




7.2 


1.9 


7 yrs. 11 mths. 


41/2—5 


13 




6.0 


1.6 


7 yrs. 9 mths. 


5—51/2 


4 




7.1 


.8 


7 yrs. 10 mths. 



It is, I think, difficult to resist the conclusion that 
no advantage can be claimed for early entry. We 
see on this method of classification that the children 
who entered school later are younger for the same 
standard of attainment than those who came earlier. 

Referring once more to Table XX., we see that 
the last group consists of unusually proficient chil- 
dren; the variation from the average mark is only 
.8. I am disinclined to draw any positive conclu- 
sion from their high marks except that of unusual 
mental ability, though, of course, we are entitled 
to say that their late entry has not prevented them 
from attaining the highest standard of proficiency. 
But it may be worth while to test our assumption 
that, within this group, namely, that of children 
from 7 to 8 years of age and upwards, the age of 
the child is an important factor in the result of the 
work. I therefore propose to arrange the children 
in order of age and correlate the age in months with 
the marks obtained for this terminal examination: 

The list was arranged thus: 



Name. 
Nunn, Wm., 
Albrecht, F., 


Age on 31, 7, "OG. 
7 yrs. 3 mths. 
7 yrs. 3 mths. 


Average mark per 
subject. 

3.0 
8.1 








Simmons, R., 


8 yrs. 5 mths. 


5.0 



The classified results follow 



No. of 


Aver 


•age 


mark per 


children. 




subject. 


6 






4.9 


6 






5.4 


8 






6.3 


6 






7.3 


8 






7.2 


7 






7.8 


8 






6.9 



44 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

TABLE XXI. 
School ''0. K." Infants. 

Age on 31, 7, '06. 
7 yrs. 3 mths. to 7 yrs. 5 mths. 
7 yrs. 5 mths. to 7 yrs. 7 mths. 
7 yrs. 7 mths. to 7 yrs. 9 mths. 
7 yrs. 9 mths. to 7 yrs. 11 mths. 

7 yrs. 11 mths. to 8 yrs. 1 mth. 
8-yrs. 1 mth. to 8 yrs. 2 mths. 

8 yrs. 2 mths. to 8 yrs. 5 mths. 

There is no doubt that in this school the age of 
the children at the time of the examination has af- 
fected the result. The correlation between the age 
in months and the average mark per subject, cal- 
culated, not from the grouped results, but from the 
individual cases, on the Pearson formula, has a 
positive coefficient of .326, with a "probable error" 
of .09. 

On the basis of these marks we can push our in- 
quiry a step further. It is not unusual to argue 
that, though an early education in an infant school 
does not secure an earlier acquisition of Reading, 
Writing and Numerical Computation, yet such a 
training is really valuable and shows itself in such 
things as the solution of arithmetical problems 
and English Composition, not only in earlier ac- 
quisition, but throughout the whole school career. 
I was myself of this opinion ; and, at an early stage 
in my research, thought I had demonstrated it to 
be the case, so far as Infant schools were concerned. 
But there is, of course, a further point on which 
we have to be clear. We want to know whether 
the lower classes did any work indirectly or di- 
rectly preparatory to English Composition and the 



AGE OF ENTEY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 45 

solution of arithmetical problems. If they did not, 
it would perhaps be wrong to suppose that our 
method of inquiry would give us relevant results. 
It might, of course, be argued that the mere pres- 
ence in school under a good teacher would, how- 
ever indirectly, increase the "intelligence" of the 
child and so affect his work in these things. But 
in this school we need not rely wholly on indi- 
rect influence, since composition in both an oral 
and a written form had been done in classes pre- 
vious to those tested, and little problems in number 
had been given also. Moreover, mental arithmetic 
with written answers had been done on several pre- 
vious occasions, so that the children were well ac- 
customed to the exercise. 

The tabulation of results gives no support to the 
view that an early commencement means superior 
work at a given age, even in these subjects; and it 
is interesting to note that the groups maintain much 
the same relative order as when all the subjects of 
school work were included. 







TABLE 


XXII. 






School "0. 


K, 


." Infants. 




Age of entry- 


No. 


of children. 




Average mark for 

composition and 

mental arithmetic. 


M. V. 


3—31/2 
3V2-^ 
4—41/2 

41/2—5 
5—5% 




14 

12 

6 

13 

4 




7.5 
7.0 
7.9 
7.0 

7.8 


2.7 
2.4 
2.6 
3.0 
1.9 



This school, however, was somewhat new. I will 
next present results from one long established and 
containing an extremely poor type of children. 
As before, all children were excluded who had, at 



46 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

any time, attended any other school. Every year 
promotion takes place from Infants' departments 
to Senior schools, and I thought it might be profit- 
able to see how far the attainments of the promoted 
children depended on the age at which they had en- 
tered the Infants' department. The promotion 
takes place partly under an ability regulation and 
partly under an age clause. The work on which 
nay conclusions are based was set for me by the 
Head Teachers of the Boys' and Girls' depart- 
ments. The exercises and methods of marking fol- 
low. The examination was used by the teachers 
as a basis for the subsequent classification of the 
children. 

Exercises given at the end of September to the 
children promoted on 31.7.05 from the infants' to 
the senior departments of school ^'N." 

Written Arithmetic. The following sums were 
dictated in words and were written down and 
worked by the children: 



(1) 791 


(2) 


586 






29 




48 


(3) 


(4) 


106 




193 


903 


586 


387 




275 


716 


219 



Three marks were given for correct answers to 
each of sums (1) and (3), and two marks for each 
of sums (2) and (4). 

Mental Arithmetic. The following problems were 
given out orally, one by one, and the boys and girls 
wrote down the answers and the answers only . 

1. A boy had 12 apples, he gave 3 to one boy and 
1 to another; how many had he left? (Two marks). 



AGE OP ENTKr AND SCHOOL PROGKESS. 47 

2. Take 7 from 10 and then add 5. (Two marks). 

3. A little girl had 6d; she spent a penny and 
then two pence more ; how mnch had she left? (Two 
marks). 

4. How many oranges can I buy for 3d., if they 
are being sold for 4 a penny? (One mark). 

5. Divide 12 marks among 3 boys, giving each the 
same number; how many do they each get? (One 
mark). 

6. If I had 2d. at first, and then got l^/^d. more, 
and after that i/od. more, how much had I got alto- 
gether? (One mark). 

7. A little girl went to a shop with a shilling. She 
spent 3d., how much had she left? (One mark). 

Spelling. The following ten words were selected 
from a reading book previously unseen, and dictated 
slowly, one by one : — children, called, morning, start- 
ing, bread, butter, hungry, became, bright, moment. 
Each word correctly spelt carried one mark. 

Writing. The children wrote with pen and) ink 
on paper the following sentence, copied from the 
printed matter in their reading books. — He came 
running with something in his mouth. Each serious 
error in writing implied the loss of one of the ten 
marks allotted to this exercise. 

'English Composition. A large and interesting col- 
oured picture was placed before the children, and 
they were told to write down anything that they 
saw. A mark was given for each intelligible state- 
m.ent; no marks being deducted for errors of any 
kind. 

Drawing (for boys). The boys were required to 



48 WHEN SHOULD A CHH^D BEGIN SCHOOL. 

draw with their rulers from a large copy of an ob- 
long flag with crossed diagonals. Marks were given 
for accuracy of proportion, angles and junctions 
of lines, up to a maximum of 10. 

Needleivork (for girls). The description of the ex- 
ercise was mislaid, and could not subsequently be 
found : the worked specimens were not preserved. 

Reading. The children read from a Standard I. 
reading book which they had not previously seen. 
I am not in possession of the system adopted in 
marking, if there was one; but I feel perfect confi- 
dence in it, since both the Head Teachers who were 
conducting these exercises for me were excellent 
teachers with long experience in examinations. 

TABLE XXIII. 

School " N. " Promoted Infants, Boys and Girls. 





No. of 


Average mark 




Average age on the 


Age of entry. 


chil- 
dren. 


per child 
per subject. 


M. V. 


day of promotion. 


3—31/2 


8 


6.4 


1.7 


7 yrs. 5 mths. 


31/2—4 


15 


5.1 


1.6 


7 yrs. 1 mth. 


4—41/2 


27 


6.1 


1.9 


7 yrs. 7 mths. 


41/2^5 


19 


6.4 


2.1 


7 yrs. 9 mths. 


5—51/2 


10 


5.7 


2.0 


7 yrs. 9 mths. 



The lower result in the second group, may very 
fairly, I think, be attributed to the lesser age of 
the children; and one would be disposed to assert 
a slight advantage on the whole to children enter- 
ing school early when the ages of the various groups 
are taken into consideration. But the method of 
selection is unsound, as some of my readers who 
understand school organization may already have 
surmised. It is not unusual to send up older chil- 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 49 

dren who have entered the infants' school late, 
whilst younger children, sometimes their superiors 
in ability, are not promoted; this is due of course 
to the operation of the *age clause'. We are deal- 
ing with groups artificially selected and not, as we 
did in the previous infants' department, with every 
child of a certain age. If the causes I have given 
for the apparent discrepancy are operating — and 
no educational administrator of any competence 
would deny that they do operate, it is no part of my 
task to specify individual cases — their effects would 
be two, (1) to lower the proficiency mark of the 
groups entering late, (2) to raise the average age of 
these groups. But why should not young pupils of 
the earlier entering groups be retained, as well as 
those of the later entering groups'? Because they 
have moved forward step by step, and because they 
are supposed to be more proficient since they have 
been through the various classes of the school, and 
because, moreover, the length of their infant school 
life is ascertainable from the 'forms' (American 
'blanks') used in promotion. 

With all these difficulties against the method, I 
still claim that the results, though a satisfactory 
testimonial to the work of the teachers of the pro- 
moted children, indicate little or no advantage in 
early entry. However, I definitely decided that I 
would very carefully avoid such artificial selections 
in the future. 

The next infants' department in which I made in- 
quiry was situated in a rather good neighbourhood, 
and I decided to consider the case of every child who 
would be between seven and eight years of age by 



50 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

the end of the current educational year. These were 
to be found in two classes working with different 
curricula. The following work was given as the or- 
dinarji terminal examination in November, 1905. 
The questions and method of marking were arranged 
by the Head Mistress and myself. The work was, 
of course, arranged so as to be suitable to the classes 
taking it. There are, doubtless, better methods of 
testing the mental proficiency of children; I am by 
no means unmindful of them; but I desired my re- 
sults to carry conviction to the teachers who arrived 
at them. Hence school work was a necessary basis 
of the exercises. We excluded all children who had, 
at any time, attended any other school, and since 
there was only one child who had entered before the 
age of 3 years 6 months her name was left out. 

These exercises were set at the end of November, 
eight months before the close of the educational year. 

Reading for Standard I.a. and Standard I.b. The 
books were the Century Readers, Standard I. Pas- 
sages were chosen which had already been read in 
previous lessons. Eight marks were given for cor- 
rect reading, one of these being deducted for an 
omission, or an incorrect rendering, or for imperfect 
articulation. Two additional marks were given for 
"expressiveness" in reading. 

Writing for Standard I.a. and Standard I.b. The 
children copied a written sentence from the black- 
board, writing with pencils on three-lined paper. A 
maximum of 10 marks was given to writing which 
contained no serious errors. 

Written Arithmetic for Standard I.a. Sets of four 



AGE OF ENTKY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 51 

sums were written on the blackboard in figures. 
These were copied by the children and worked. One 
of these sets is reproduced below : — 



362 


459 


870 


384x4 


478 


276 


356 


4 


82 


305 






897 


586 








Three marks each were given for correct answers 
to the subtraction and multiplication sums, and two 
marks for each of the addition sums. This was cor- 
rect marking for these children at this stage of their 
work ; later on they would find the addition more dif- 
ficult than the subtraction and multiplication sums. 

Written Arithmetic for Standard I.b. Sets of 
sums, easier than those given to Standard I. a., were 
written on the blackboard as before, and, as before, 
were copied and worked by the children. I give one 
set as indicative of the difficulty of the work. 



76 


43 


456 


762 


32 


56 


238 


148 


45 


24 






8 
27 


19 

8 




: 



Three marks were given for correct answers to 
subtraction sums, and two for each of the addition 
sums. 

Mental Arithmetic for Standard I.a. The follow- 
ing problems were given out orally by the Head Mis- 
tress. The answer, and the answer only, was writ- 
ten down by the children. This was the first exer- 
cise worked in this way by these children. 



52 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

1. Tommy had 6 marbles and Johnny had 7 and 
James had 3; how many had they altogether? (One 
mark). 

2. Mary had 20 nuts, her brother had 3 less ; how 
many did he have? (Three marks). 

3. There were 4 boxes of pencils with 7 in each 
box ; how many pencils were there altogether? (One 
mark). 

4. Divide 14 nuts between two boys, giving each of 
them the same number; how many would each boy 
have? (Two marks). 

5. Mary had seven thimbles and her sister had 3 
more than Mary. How many thimbles were there 
altogether? (Three marks). 

The marks attached to the problems were the as- 
sessments of the Head Mistress. I should not my- 
self have given more than two marks for the answer 
to question 2, but I admit that the result showed the 
teacher's estimate of difficulty in this case to be 
more correct than mine. Standard I.b. worked no 
problems in Arithmetic. 

Spelling for Standard I.a. Ten words were chosen 
from lessons previously read, and were called out 
slowly, one by one, the children writing them down. 
The words were — bread, salt, mother, water, trees, 
birds, parrot, letter, slate, pencil. One mark was 
given for each word spelt correctly. 

Spelling for Standard I.b. In this class five words 
were given — father, water, cart, face, hands; and 
two marks were given for each word spelt correctly. 

English Composition for Standard I.a. An object 
lesson on water had been given some months pre- 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 53 

viously, and the children wrote on paper with pencils 
anything they knew or remembered about ''water." 
One mark was given for each intelligible statement. 
No marks were deducted for incorrect spelling, punc- 
tuation, construction or writing. Standard I.b. 
omitted this exercise 

Needlework (for girls). Standards I. a. and I.b. A 
hemming exercise was given (without the join). 

A knitting exercise was given with chain edge and 
casting off. Five marks were given as a maximum 
for each exercise. 

Drawing (for boys). Standards I. a. and I.b. 
Each boy was required to draw a flag with his ruler 
from a copy before him. He was told to make each 
side of the flag two inches long, to join the corners, 
and to draw a long staff at the bottom. Two marks 
were given for approximate equality in the sides, 
two were given for approximate equality in the 
angles and one mark was given for good diagonals. 
On a subsequent occasion the boys, with a big copy 
of the flag before them, drew it on paper "free 
hand." The marks allotted were as before. 







TABLE XXIV. 












School "G. 


" Infants. 












i-g 




u ^ 










■O OS jj 




is- 


Average age 




Age of 


Average age 


=3 s "S 




Bar. 


on 31, 7, '06. 




entry. 


of entry. 


No. of cl 

Average 
per child 
per subjf 




4, .-;;«« 




Group I. 


31/0—4 


3 yrs. 10 mths. 


5 6.2 


1.0 


4.5 


7 yrs. 5 mths, 


Group II. 


4—4% 


4 yrs. 3 mths. 


11 7.0 


.7 


5.6 


7 yrs. 6 mths. 


Group III. 


41/2—5 


4 yrs. 9 mths. 


21 7.4 


1.1 


5.6 


7 yrs. 8 mths. 


Group IV. 


5—51/2 


5 yrs. 3 mths. 


9 6.9 


1.1 


4.8 


7 yrs. 9 mths. 



54 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

It would be very difficult, on these figures as a 
basis, to conclude that there is any educational ad- 
vantage in attendance at school at an early age. 
Nor do I think we could conclude that there is any 
disadvantage. The earliest entering group is the 
least proficient, but they happen to be younger than 
the others; and there is some inferiority about the 
latest group though they are older than the two 
preceding ones. The striking thing is the extraor- 
dinarily little difference between the groups. We 
fully realise this when we reflect that Group I. will 
have had an average school life of 3 years 7 months, 
Group II. an average school life of 3 years 3 months, 
Group III. of 2 years 9 months and Group IV. of 
only 2 years 6 months, by the end of the current 
educational year. If the ages are calculated to the 
end of the month in which these exercises were done. 
Group I. has already had a school life of 2 years 11 
months. Group II. of 2 years 7 months, Group III. 
of 2 years 1 month, and Group IV. of 1 year 10 
months only. 

I have suggested that the groups which entered 
late may owe their additional proficiency to the fact 
that they are older than the groups who entered 
earlier. But it is very doubtful whether this is the 
case. To test this issue, I tabulated the names of 
the children with their ages at the end of the educa- 
tional year, and the total marks which they obtained 
for proficiency, thus : — 



Namo. 
Drake, Frank, 
Cooke, Reggie, 
Pryor, Wm., 


Age 


In m 
84 
84 
85 

89 

9i 


ths. 


Total marks. 
52 
61 
35 


Hogaii, Alf., 


54 


Hiil,' Alice," 


64 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 55 

Probably the following table will make clear that 
age within the limits of these ages, namely, 7 and 8 
years, and within the same class, is not a factor of 
importance. 

TABLE XXV. 
School "G." Infants. 









No. of 


Average proficiency 




Present age. 




children. 


mark. 


7yrs. 


mths. to 7 yrs. 


3 mths. 


7 


49 


7yrs. 


3 mths. to 7 yrs. 


5 mths. 


6 


62 


7yrs. 


5 mths. to 7 yrs. 


7 mths. 


8 


47 


Tyrs. 


7 mths. to 7 yrs. 


9 mths. 


7 


52 


7yrs. 


9 mths. to 7 yrs. 


10 mths. 


10 


54 


7yrs. 


10 mths. to 8 yrs. 


mths. 


8 


44 



If age is a factor, though of too slight a character 
to be shown by a method of grouped averages, it 
should become apparent if we calculate the corre- 
lation between "months" and "marks" by the 
product-moment method. The coefficient of corre- 
lation, however, calculated on the Pearson formula, 
is — .024, with a "probable error" of .1. 

If then, within these groups, we are entitled to 
regard age as an unimportant factor, it will become 
more probable from the Table of Averages (Table 
XXIV.) that early age of entry has not favourably 
affected the mental proficiency of these children. My 
next step was to rearrange the tabulated list of 
names, and to consider only the correlation between 
length of school life and mental proficiency. The 
list was thus arranged: — 

Length of school life 
beginning with the 



Name. 


longest. 


Months. 


Total 


[ marks. 


Syancott, Alice, 


3 yrs. 11 mths. 


47 




45 


Fullerton, Dolly, 


3 yrs. 11 mths. 


47 




51 


Schalk, Rose, 


3 yrs. 11 mths. 


47 




45 


Brookman, B., 


3 yrs. 10 mths. 


46 
26 




33 








Goodyer, Nellie, 


2 yrs. 2 mths. 


57 



56 



WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 



Collecting these results and grouping them, the 
result indicates that, so far as this school is con- 
cerned, there is a slight positive advantage in 
commencing late, as will be seen by the following 
table. 

TABLE XXVI. 

School ''G." Infants. Class i. Standard La. 



Length of school life. 


No. of 
children. 


Average total 

mark for 

proficiency to the 

nearest unit. 


M. V. 


47 mths. to 39 mtlis. 


7 


47 


6 


39 mths. to 35 mths. 


8 


49 


7 


35 mths. to 34 mths. 


18 


49 


7 


34 mths. to 32 mths. 


5 


50 


7 


32 mths. to 26 mths. 


8 


53 


5 



I regret that I am unable to tabulate the results 
of the children's work in Class ii. with those of 
Class i., but this school was one in which no English 
Composition had been done and no problems in 
Arithmetic had been given to the pupils until they 
reached the first class; and, as was seen above, the 
work set for Class ii. was different from that set 
for Class i. I therefore give the results separately. 



School ''G." 



TABLE XXVII. 

Infants. Class ii. Standard Lb. 









Average mark 






No. 


of 


per child 


Average age 


Age of entry. 


childi 


•en. 


per subject. 


on 31, 7, '06. 


31/2^ 


2 




4.5 


7 yrs. 1 mth. 


4—41/2 


4 




4.1 


7 yrs. 3 mths, 


41/2—5 


3 




4.8 


7 yrs. 3 mths. 


5—51/2 


6 




5.7 


7 yrs. 3 mths. 



Again there are distinct indications of a rise in 
proficiency with late entry into school, nor is there 
any suggestion afforded by the table that this is due 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 57 

to the fact that the later entries were older at the 
time of the examination than the earlier ones. But, 
of course, in order to obtain a complete estimate I 
ought to be able to put the results of the two classes 
together, and that I cannot do for the reason I 
have given above. However, it may be interesting 
to classify the results of this class also in relation 
to length of school life. 

TABLE XXVIII. 

School ''G." Infants. 



Length of 
school life. 


No. of 
children. 


Average 
total mark. 


Average age 
on 31, 7, '06. 


39 to 35 mths. 

35 to 33 mths. 

33 to 23 mths. 

23 mths. 


3 
4 
5 
3 


19 
18 
31 

28 


7 yrs. 3 mths. 
7 yrs. 21/0 mths 
7 yrs. 314 mths. 
7 yrs. 2i/5 mths. 



The correlation between length of school life and 
mental proficiency worked out from the individual 
cases on the Pearson formula is — .45 with a "prob- 
able error" of .14. This result is in favour of late 
entry; but it must in fairness be considered in con- 
junction with those of Standard I.a. And it is in- 
teresting to note that within this class the relation 
between age at the time of the examination and pro- 
ficiency is perhaps somewhat inverse, as may be 
gathered from the following table of averages : 

TABLE XXIX. 

School "G." Infants. 





No. of 


Avei 


•age total mark 


Age on 31, 7, '06. 


children. 


to 


nearest unit. 


7 yrs mths. 


3 




28 


7 yrs. 1 mth. 


4 




21 


7 yrs. 2 mths. and 7 yrs. 3 mths. 


3 




29 


7 yrs. 5 mths. and 7 yrs. 6 mths. 


3 




24 


7 yrs. 8 mths. 


2 




22 



58 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

The next school for which the results of my in- 
quiry are presented is very favourably situated in 
a good neighbourhood. It has already been referred 
to as School "E." This infants' school had long 
been known as one in which Beading, Writing and 
Arithmetic were postponed until the higher classes 
were reached; so, as I intended to use a school ex- 
amination of a Standard I. character which involved 
these subjects, I limited my inquiry to the three 
large classes which were already in that Standard. 
A few children over seven years of age were in lower 
classes, but so few that their inclusion could have 
affected the result but little. 

The following exercises ivere set: 

Reading. Each child read from a Standard I. 
book which had not before been seen. It was se- 
lected so as to be of moderate difficulty only. About 
five lines were read by each pupil, one mark being 
deducted for each error from a maximum of 10. 

Dictation. Ten words were dictated — kettle, boil, 
rabbit, tail, caught, cruel, bread, branch, neat, early. 
One mark was allowed for each word correctly spelt. 

Written Arithmetic. The following sums were dic- 
tated: (1) ninety plus five hundred and eighteen 
plus seven hundred and sixty-one plus eighty-eight 
plus three hundred and thirty-six. (2) Take away 
seventy-seven from ninety-one. (3) Multiply five 
hundred and six by five. (4) Divide ninety-five by 
four. Three marks each were given for the subtrac- 
tion and division sums and two marks each for the 
addition and multiplication sums. 

Mental Arithmetic. Five problems were given out 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 59 

orally, each one having two "steps." The children 
wrote down the answers and the answers only. Two 
marks were given for each correct answer. The 
exercises were : 

(1) Tom had half a dozen nuts and John had three 
times as many; how many had they together? 

(2) If I have four boxes with four pencils in each 
box, how many more shall I need to make twenty- 
four? 

(3) I had twenty-four apples in a basket. I took 
half of them out and divided them equally among 
three boys ; how many did each boy get ? 

(4) If I bought five oranges every day for five 
days and then gave away nineteen, how many had I 
left? 

(5) John has fifteen oranges and Tom has three 
more than John; how many have they together? 

English Composition. A picture was placed be- 
fore the children which they had not seen before, 
and they were required to write down anything 
which they saw in it or thought about it. Spelling, 
punctuation and grammatical construction were dis- 
regarded, a mark being given up to a maximum of 10 
for every intelligible statement. (I need hardly 
say that the maximum was chosen so as to be suit- 
able to the best pupils.) 

Drawing and Needlework. The boys did one of 
their usual exercises in drawing and the girls one 
in simple needlework which were marked by the 
teachers in the usual way up to a maximum of 10. 
Great care was used to adjust the standard of mark- 
ing of drawing and needlework, so that neither the 



60 



WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 



boys nor girls got an advantage in marks because 
of their respective subjects. 

Writing. A writing exercise given by the head 
mistress was also marked up to a maximum of 10. 
It was the practice in this school to mark the writ- 
ing with great care; very few pupils indeed received 
the maximum mark. 



The results were summarized on the basis 
length of school life and are given below : 



of 



TABLE XXX. 
School' 'R." Infants. 



Length of 
school life. 



4 — 4% yrs. 
SVa^yrs. 
3—31/2 yrs. 
2y2— 3 yrs. 
2—2^2 yrs. 
11/2—2 yrs. 
1—1 ¥2 yrs. 



°2 

4 

15 

7 
24 
23 
19 

7 



Average time 
in school. 



4 yrs. 2 mths. 
3 yrs. 10 mths. 
3 yrs. 2 mths. 
2 yrs. 9 mths. 
2 yrs. 3 mths. 
1 yr. 10 mths. 
1 yr. 4 mths. 



Average age 
of entry. 



3 yrs. 6 mtlis. 

3 yrs. 8 mths. 

4 yrs. 3 mths. 

4 yrs. 8 mths. 

5 yrs. 2 mths. 

5 yrs. 7 mths. 

6 yrs. 2 mths. 



Average age 

at time of 

examination. 



7 yrs. 8 mths. 
7 yrs. 6 mths. 
7 yrs. 5 mths. 
7 yrs. 7 mths. 
7 yrs. 5 mths. 
7 yrs. 5 mths. 
7 yrs. 6 mths. 



9^ . 

6.6 
6.7 
6.5 
6.8 
6.4 
6.0 
6.0 



It is certainly astonishing to find how little dif- 
ference there is in attainments between those chil- 
dren who have had three and four years of school 
teaching and those who have had but one or two. It 
is not, as might be suggested, due to the almost ex- 
clusive kindergarten work in the lower classes, for 
the same result was found in other schools, notably 
in School ' ' G, " in which the work even of the lowest 
class was thought to be directly preparatory for that 
of the Standard classes. But after an entrance age 
of 5, there is a slight though definite drop. Between 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 61 

the ages of 3 and 5 neither advantage nor disad- 
vantage can be claimed for early entry. 

It might, however, be maintained that early kin- 
dergarten work, whilst not favouring the acquisi- 
tion of such aptitudes as Reading, Spelling, Nota- 
tion and Computation, would still exercise a favour- 
able influence on the activities involved in English 
Composition and in the mental solution of numeri- 
cal problems. These exercises would be chosen by 
teachers as specially indicative of what is called 
' ' intelligence. ' ' The grouping is as before : — 





TABLE XXXI. 






School 


"R." 


Infants. 


Average mark for 


;th of school life. 




No. of 
childrea. 




composition and 
mental arithmetic. 


4 — 41^ yrs. 




4 




7.1 


31/2— 4 yrs. 




15 




6.1 


3— 3y2 yrs. 




7 




6.1 


21/2—3 yrs. 




24 




6.1 


2— 2y2 yrs. 




23 




4.9 


11/2— 2 yrs. 




19 




6.2 


1— IVayrs. 




7 




5.6 



There seems, as in former cases, to be no advan- 
tage in early entry, at least until after an entrance 
age of about 5 years is passed, and it is rather doubt- 
ful even then. The question at issue is, however, 
so important that I thought it necessary to get a 
more accurate measure of correlation than can be 
provided by a number of fluctuating averages; so 
the names of all these pupils were arranged in order 

showing Combined marls for 

Length of school life composition and mental 

Name. in months. arithmetic. Max. 20. 

Davis, Harold, 51 7 

Rumsden, Stanley, 51 16 

Harding, Harold, 50 , 12 

Sherington, Leslie, 49 18 



Anderson, Florence, 14 15 



62 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

Then the product-moment formula was applied 
and the correlation between length of school life and 
proficiency in composition and mental arithmetic 
was found to be +.159 with a "probable error" of 
.06. It is just possible that length of school life 
has favourably influenced the work in English Com- 
position and Mental Arithmetic, but also there is 
no doubt that, if so, its influence is extremely small. 
And it is in the groups entering after 5 years that 
this decline, small as it is, takes place. 

The next infants' department, the results from 
which are presented here, was of different char- 
acter from the last. If the elementary schools 
of London were graded into four classes according 
to the character of the neighbourhoods in which they 
are situated, this school would fall in Class 2, count- 
ing upwards from those situated in the worst neigh- 
bourhoods as Class 1. Further, the school was very 
small, containing only four classes : the head mistress 
young and enthusiastic and full of the conviction 
that good method in infants' departments implied, as 
the word method is supposed to imply, "method" for 
learning something, and not, as is sometimes thought, 
"method" for its own sake. Further, all the chil- 
dren between 7 and 8 years of age (there were none 
in the school over 8) at the end of the educational 
year were in the Standard I. class ; so that the ordi- 
nary terminal examination, which was, as usual, 
taking place just previous to the end of the educa- 
tional year, was quite adequate for my purpose. 
As before, all cases were excluded of children who 
had ever attended any other schools. 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 63 

The questions set at the terminal examination and 
the method of marking the exercises were as fol- 
low — : 

Reading. Each child read two paragraphs from 
the King Alfred Reader (page 30 onwards), was 
asked to pronounce at sight, without the context, 
difficult words occurring therein, and was also asked 
two questions on the meaning of phrases. A mark 
was subtracted for every error or word unsatisfac- 
torily articulated. 

English Composition. The Head Mistress told the 
children the story of the Lion and the Mouse. Im- 
mediately afterwards, they wrote down what they 
could remember of it, with pen and ink, using their 
own words. One mark was given for every intelli- 
gible statement bearing on the tale. Two marks 
were given for a statement expressing, in any way 
whatever, the "moral" of the story. No marks were 
given for spelling, punctuation or grammatical con- 
struction. 

Dictation. Ten words — Fairy, beautiful, castle, sol- 
dier, ditch, friend, afraid, animal, slept, noise — were 
called out slowly, the children writing them down one 
by one. One mark was given for each word correctly 
spelt. 

Hand-Writing. The children were required to 
write the following sentence copied from a printed 
book. — "Tom never had any money to spend." 
One mark was subtracted from ten as a maximum, 
for every word copied wrongly, and every letter 
wrongly made or wrongly joined up. 

Arithmetic. The whole class was divided into two 



64 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

sets, A's and B's. I give those sums only which 
were set to A's. The numbers were given out con- 
cretely, that is, they were called "apples" or *'boys" 
or something material; and the subtraction sums 
were not necessarily called out with their minuends 
first. 

The following were the numbers given: 



600 


8 






09 


969 


869 


990 


876 


87 


694 


699 


654 


650 






427 


876 








Three marks were given for each addition sum 
taken down correctly and correctly worked, and two 
marks for each subtraction sum. 

Arithmetic. Written Problems. The following 
sums were set in writing and the children answered 
in writing. 

1. In a train there are 96 people. If 78 get out 
how many will there still be in the train 1 

2. 64 sheep were put into a field and then 26 
more. How many were there in the field altogether? 

3. In a box there are 99 eggs. 72 were taken out 
and six were broken; how many eggs were left? 

4. A boy has 83 nuts in one bag and 46 in another 
bag. He loses 13, how many has he after that? 

Two marks were given for the correct answers to 
each of numbers 1 and 2, and 3 marks for correct 
answers to each of numbers 3 and 4. 

Arithmetic. Mental Problems. 

The following questions were asked one by one 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 65 

by the teacher and each child wrote down the answer 
after working the sum mentally. Two marks were 
given for each correct answer. 

a. There were 12 trees in a row and there were 
10 of these rows. If two were blown down, how many 
were left standing? 

b. If 25 oranges were divided among 4 boys so 
that each got the same number, how many did each 
get and how many were left over 1 

c. There were 12 sweets in one box and 16 sweets 
in another. How many should I have to take out 
of one box and put in the other box so as to get the 
same number in each? 

d. John has 6 marbles and Tom has 2 more than 
John. How many have Tom and John together? 

e. Showing 13 nuts lying on a table the teacher 
asked, "If 4 boys divide these 13 nuts among them, 
so as to have each an equal number, how many will 
be left on the table?" 

Drawing (for boys). 

(1) An exercise was given to be copied with the 
aid of ruler and set-square, and marks were de- 
ducted for crooked lines or lines wrongly placed. 

(2) A kite was shown to the class and the chil- 
dren drew it "freehand" as well as they could. 
Marks were deducted for omission of important 
parts or very unsatisfactory proportions. 

Needlework (for girls). Coloured cotton was 
used for the following exercises : 

(a) A strip of hemming showing "beginning on" 
and "break in hem." 



66 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

(b) A strip of top-sewing, 5 inches long, showing 
"beginning on" and sewing. 

Marks were deducted if the stitches were too 
small, or were very irregular in size; also for in- 
correct "beginning on." 

The general summary of results follows : — 

TABLE XXXII. 

School "C." Infants. 







Average 


Average age at 




Age of 


No. of 


mark per 


the time of this 


Average length of 


entry. 


children. 


subject. 


examination. 


school life. 


3—31/2 yrs. 


8 


6.2 


7 yrs. 5 mths. 


4 yrs. 1 mth. 


31/2— 4 yrs. 


6 


5.6 


7 yrs. 6 mths. 


3 yrs. 7 mths. 


4 — 414 yrs. 


12 


5.0 


7 yrs. 5 mths. 


3 yrs. 1 mth. 


41/2— 5 yrs. 


9 


5.6 


7 yrs. 7 mths. 


2 yrs. 9 mths. 


5 — 514 yrs. 


8 


5.3 


7 yrs. 8 mths. 


2 yrs. 4 mths. 


5%— 6yrs. 


4 


5.0 


7 yrs. 9 mths. 


2 yrs. 1 mth. 



If we are entitled to assume that the older groups 
ought to be more proficient than the younger ones 
within this class, which, it will be remembered, con- 
tains all the children in the school between 7 and 8 
years of age, and no children either over 8 or un- 
der 7, we may, I think, conclude that there is, per- 
haps, a slight positive relation between early entry 
and proficiency. The most proficient group is that 
entering from 3 to 314 years. Five of these children 
are marked as coming from especially good homes 
and only one as coming from a 'poor' home; and 
this factor, which I hope to deal with at length pres- 
ently, doubtless counts for something; whereas the 
four children in the latest entering group include 
two children from very poor homes and none from 
homes marked specially good. And of the second 
group, namely, those entering from 31/2 to 4 years 
of age, four are marked as coining from specially 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 67 

good homes. In any case, however, the difference 
made by additional months and years of schooling 
seems very slight. The last column, indeed, seems 
to me a most instructive one, the facts of which 
should be borne in mind whenever we look at this 
table. The drop occurs after an entrance age of 5 
years is passed. 

I propose to work out the correlation between 
age of entry in months and proficiency as measured 
by the results of this examination by the usual for- 
mula from the individual results. The conclusion 
is, of course, dependent on the assumption that gen- 
eral mental proficiency can be measured by care- 
fully conducted school examinations. I believe it can, 
but believe also that it can be better measured by ex- 
ercises more strictly psychological, a question which, 
however, for the present, must be set on one side. 
On the assumption that we are measuring the men- 
tal proficiency of these children with approximate 
accuracy, we proceed, as in former cases, to arrange 
the names and figures in appropriate columns, in 
preparation for estimating exactly the relation be- 
twen the quantities we are considering by means of 
a formula of correlation. 

Name. Age of entry in Total mark for all 

months. subjects. 

Creed, Alf., 36 44 

Dawe, Fred., 36 44 

Capern, Fred., 38 64 



Hall, Florence, 70 47 

The correlation between age of entry and mental 
proficiency = — .167 with a 'probable error' of .1. 
This appears to indicate a slight advantage in early 
entry, but the size of the probable error as com- 



68 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

pared with the coefficient of correlation, renders the 
conclusion decidedly uncertain ; though we have also 
to remember that the later entering groups were 
slightly older at the time of the examination. 

All the above observations had been made dur- 
ing the summer and autumn of 1905 and winter of 
1905-1906 ; the next were made in the spring of 1907. 
The school in which they were made was unknown 
to me personally, except in connection with a pre- 
vious inquiry as to the best methods of teaching 
reading. It was situated near a suburban common 
in a rather good residential district: the Boys' and 
Girls' departments, were, I believe, known as Higher 
Grade Schools. The stories, toys, animals and sen- 
sory stimulations, which are now recommended for 
the teaching of young children, had long been a no- 
ticeable feature in the work of this school. There 
was, too, a quite unusual absence of restraint, and 
it was with very considerable interest that the Head 
Mistress and I set about our inquiry. We de- 
cided to deal with every child on the school regis- 
ter who would be 7 or over 7 years of age at the 
close of the educational year, excluding, of course, 
as in previous cases, all those who had ever at- 
tended any other school, public or private. The 
children in question were to be found in four 
classes, in Standard I.a. (Boys), in Standard I.a. 
(Girls), in Standard I.b. (Boys and Girls), and in 
Grade III.^ (Boys and Girls). We were able to 
schedule 40 in the first of these classes, 38 in the 
second, and 45 in the third (the half-dozen in the 
fourth class are included here). This fact in itself 
speaks volumes for the non-migratory character of 

'Grade III is an Infant School eradinsr: it consists chiefly of six-year-old children. 



AGE OP ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 69 

the population of the neighbourhood, which was in- 
deed a settled one, possessing well-grown children. 
The children in the fourth class referred to did not 
number more than half-a-dozen altogether. 

It is hardly necessary to give again in detail an 
account of how the schedules were prepared. A 
terminal examination had been conducted as usual, 
just before the preceding Christmas, by the Head 
Mistress, and individual marks had been given for 
Reading, Writing, Spelling, Written Arithmetic and 
Mental Arithmetic. Each of these subjects received 
a maximum of 10 marks. The work set for the 
Standard I.a. (boys' class) and the Standard I.a. 
(girls' class) had been the same; but, as the results 
from the girls' class are somewhat lower through- 
out, and especially in Mental and Written Arithme- 
tic, I shall present the results for the two classes 
separately. The work set for Standard I.b. was not 
so hard as that set for Standard I.a., and boys and 
girls in this class were taught together. Some half- 
dozen children who were below the standard classes 
are included with Standard I.b. 

The following are the results of the Head Mis- 
tress 's terminal examination : — 

TABLE XXXIII. 

School "W." Infants. 

Standard I.a. Boys. 





No. of 


Average age on 


Average mark per 


Age of entry. 


children. 


31, 7, '07. 


subject. 


3—31/2 


3 


7 yrs. 1 1 mths. 


8.9 


SVa— 4 


8 


7 yrs. 11 mths. 


8.7 


4^1/2 


13 


7 yrs. 9 mths. 


8.9 


41/2—5 


3 


7 yrs. 10 mths. 


8.9 


5—51/2 


2 


7 yrs. 10 mths. 


9.6 



tU WHEN SHOULD 


A CHILD BEGIN 


SCHOOL. 




Standard I.a. Girls. 






Age of entry. 


No. of 
children. 


Average age on 
31, 7, '07. 


Average mark per 
subject. 


3— 3y2 
3y2— 4 

4—4% 

4y2— 5 
5— 5y2 
5y2— 6 




2 

14 

14 

7 
1 


yrs. mths. 
7 yrs. 8 mths. 
7 yrs. 8 mths. 
7 yrs. 11 mths. 
7 yrs. 1 1 mths. 
7 yrs. 8 mths. 




0.0 
6.6 

7.2 
7.9 
6.4 
6.8 




Standard I.b. Boys and Girls. 




Age of entry. 


No. of 
children. 


Average age on 
31, 7, '07. 


Average mark per 
subject. 


3— 3y2 
3y2^ 
4^^y2 

5— 5y2 
5y2— 6 
6— 6y2 


4 
5 

10 
8 

15 
2 
1 


7 yrs. 9 mths. 
7 yrs. 4 mths. 
7 yrs. 6 mths. 
7 yrs. 8 mths. 
7 yrs. 5 mths. 
7 yrs. 6 mths. 
7 yrs. 5 mths. 




8.0 
6.6 
7.4 
7.2 
7.1 
7.6 
8.4 



It would, I think, be difficult to conclude anything 
from these figures except the irrelevance of the en- 
trance age up to 5 years at least. There seems, 
however, to be some indication in this school that 
entrance after five is accompanied by slightly di- 
minished progress ; the average mark for all chil- 
dren entering after 5 is 7.2. 

But of course there are difficulties in accepting 
these results as altogether beyond criticism. In the 
first place, the proportion of children entering at 
later ages as compared with earlier ones is greater 
in Standard I.b. than in the two Standard I.a. 
classes. And in the second place, I doubted whether 
the exercises given were, perhaps, altogether ade- 
quate to test the advantage of early entry in a 
school whose lower classes were taught so exclu- 
sively on what are usually called ''kindergarten" 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 71 

methods. Further, I had long had in mind a psy- 
chological examination rather than one based on 
attainments in subjects which had been directly 
taught in school. If, however, I used well-known 
psychological tests, I should not necessarily carry 
the teachers with me in the work and in the con- 
clusions arrived at. So I finally effected a kind of 
compromise. All the children were tested by me 
and their exercises were worked in my presence. 
The Head Mistress, the Teachers and myself marked 
the papers conjointly and the exercises set were un- 
like those that had been set before for school work. 
I thought if I could get an exercise which should 
measure the power to perceive visual form, if I 
could get an immediate memory exercise and an 
imagination exercise, I should do well. And I sub- 
sequently determined on an exercise in reasoning, 
using — since the children were somewhat accus- 
tomed to reason numerically — some problems involv- 
ing number, most of which were new. I have since 
found cause to believe that the correlation between 
numerical and general unquantitative reasoning may 
not be very high, at least with older children: but 
my readers will at least accept the test as bearing 
on school proficiency. 

I propose to give the exercises in full with their 
method of administration and marking. Only two 
of these exercises were given to the same child the 
same morning. 

Immediate Memory. Considering the ages of the 
children, I thought it advisable to use an auditory 
test (most of these children were probably, by this 
age, predominantly visual, as some of my subse- 



72 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

quent work has indicated. I was, however, accept- 
ing American and German results as valid for Eng- 
lish children). The test consisted of six consonants 
selected so as to yield no obvious associations to 
the minds of the children. They were called out 
twice in 20 seconds in a firm, clear voice, with a 
slight pause after the third and a longer pause after 
the sixth. It is probable that a grouping into threes 
for children of this age is the most satisfactory 
division of six units. One minute and forty sec- 
onds were allowed, during which the children wrote 
down as much as they could remember. At the 
expiration of two minutes from the commencement 
of the exercises the second series of six consonants 
was given out, and so on throughout. The follow- 
ing is a specimen exercise : — 

y s b m t r 
Six of these exercises were given one after the 
other. The method of marking was as follows: — 
Three marks were allowed for every consonant cor- 
rectly placed, two marks if the consonant was one 
remove to the right or left of its proper position, 
and one mark if it was two places to the right or 
left of its proper position. My reader will see that 
we have a possible mark of no less than 108; the 
highest mark actually obtained was 100, the lowest 
17; the Standard I.a. class averaged 60, the lower 
classes about 40. The only present interest attach- 
ing to these figures is the indication that we had 
obtained a series of numbers which would be very 
sensitive to inequalities of merit. For purposes 
of tabulation the marks were reduced to a basis of 
10 as a maximum. 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 7o 

Observation Exercise. On the same morning, after 
an interval of a few minutes, a large and some- 
what diagrammatic drawing of the seed pods of 
the sycamore (1 foot 4 inches by 1 foot in size) 
was placed before the children and they were asked 
to draw on paper what they saw. But it was not 
intended that the exercise should be one of dexter- 
ity in draughtsmanship. In marking the papers, at- 
tention was paid only to the presence or absence 
of important parts and their relative proportions. 
Three persons, two of the teachers and myself, 
jointly assessed each paper with 10 for a maximum 
mark. The highest mark was 9, the lowest 1 and 
the average was approximately 5. 

Imagination Exercise. About a week later a new 
exercise was given in English Composition. The 
words cat, dog, boy, girl were written on the black- 
board and the children were asked to write a story 
and put these words in it. In marking their exer- 
cises, one mark was given for every intelligible state- 
ment, with an additional mark if the statement was 
connected with the previous one. No errors in spell- 
ing or punctuation were marked, nor was a proper 
sentence form insisted on. Any statement either 
as sentence or phrase received a mark if it was in 
any way intelligible. The highest mark was 27 ; four 
children received no marks, and there were five with 
1 mark only. The average mark in the Standard 
I.a. classes was approximately 15i/o, the boys scor- 
ing about 14 and the girls 17 marks. In Standard 
I.b. the average mark was 5. In summarizing the 
marks they were reduced to the basis of 10 as a 
maximum. 



74 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

Reasoning Exercise. On the same morning, the 
two exercises being separated by an interval, the 
following numerical problems were given. They 
were written by the teacher on the blackboard, read 
by the teacher, then read by me, and were illus- 
trated concretely to the children with everything 
necessary to make the problems understood, though 
in no case were the objects used about which the 
calculations had to be made — these were imaginary 
in every case. The following were the problems 
with the marks allowed attached. Only the answers 
were to be written down : 

1. There were 10 boys in this room, 2 in the next 
and 2 in the next; how many boys are there alto- 
gether? (one mark). 

2. There are 16 marbles in this box and 12 in this 
box; how many more are there in the first than in 
the second! (two marks). 

3. If there are 7 trees in a row and there are 4 
rows, how many trees are there altogether? (one 
mark). 

4. There are 6 boys and we are going to divide 
a shilling between them ; how many pennies will each 
boy get? (one mark). 

5. Miss A. (one of the teachers) has 10 prizes and 
Miss B. (another teacher) has 6 prizes; how many 
must I take away from Miss A so that they shall 
both have the same number? (three marks). 

6. I divide sixpence between these two girls so 
that one shall have twopence more than the other; 
how much will they each get? (three marks, one cor- 
rect answer one mark). 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 75 

7. Here are two boys — Johnny and Tommy. 
Tommy has 8 nuts and Johnny has 2 more than 
Tommy; how many have they both together? (three 
marks). 

Four children received the maximum mark of 14, 
and four received marks. The average for Stand- 
ard La. (boys) was about 9, for Standard I.a. (girls) 
about 7, and for Standard I.b. (boys and girls) 
about 41/^. In summarizing, the marks were re- 
duced to a basis of 10 as a maximum. 

I propose first to give the grand summary of re- 
sults. 

TABLE XXXIV. 

School ''W." Infants. 





Average age on 


No. of 


Average mark per 


■ on entry. 


31, 7, '07. 


children. 


subject. 


3—31/2 


7 yrs. 10 mths. 


7 


5.1 


3y2— 4 


7 yrs. 7 mths. 


14 


4.4 


4— 4y2 


7 yrs. 8 mths. 


32 


4.9 


41/2—5 


7 yrs. 9 mths. 


34 


5.2 


5—514 


7 yrs. 7 mths. 


20 


4.0 


5y2— 6 


7 yrs. 7 mths. 


3 


3.9 


6—61/2 


7 yrs. 5 mths. 


1 


3.1 



I think we can say definitely, especially when we 
consider the comparative ages of the children at the 
time they did these exercises, that, until an entrance 
age of 5 years is passed, there is no advantage in 
an earlier as against a later age in entering school; 
the correlation would indeed seem slightly in the 
opposite direction. After the entrance age of 5 
there is a drop, not very large, but certainly pres- 
ent ; though even here it must be admitted that these 
children are, on the average, younger than the groups 
entering earlier, except the children who enter from 



76 



WHEN SHOULD A CHHiD BEGIN SCHOOL. 



31/^-4, who are, however, found to be superior. The 
conclusion is considerably strengthened by the fig- 
ures for the particular exercises. 

TABLE XXXV. 
School "W." Infants. 





2 


H® 


Age on entry. 


2 


«i 






6 


§9 




Z 


tfS 


3—3% 


7 


5.8 


31/2^ 


14 


4.9 


4-41/2 


32 


5.0 


41/2—5 


34 


5.5 


5— SVa 


20 


4.2 


5y2— 6 


3 


3.6 


6—6V2 


1 


4.3 





6JC • 


a>< 


5.7 


4.0 


4.9 


4.0 


3.9 


4.7 


4.3 


5.0 


5.5 


4.8 


4.9 


5.8 


4.3 


3.3 


4.3 


^6.0 


3.8 


*2.4 


1.0 


2.2 


2.9 



*These are averages of two cases only; the third child in this 
group was not present when these exercises were done. The last group 
consists of one child only. 



IV. 

AGE OF ENTRY IN ITS RELATION TO THE SOCIAL 
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CHILDREN. 

I am quite sure that many of my readers have 
gone with me so far, but have felt all along that I 
was omitting a most important factor bearing on 
the question at issue. There is a belief widely spread 
that *' Board School" children go to school at 3 years 
of age because their homes are invariably poor, their 
mothers go out to work and their older sisters are 
''minding baby." I do not wish to express myself 
too strongly, because I am aware that vehemence 
defeats its own object; but I do wish to say that 
whoever is of opinion that the parents of Board 
School children form a homogeneous class of pov- 
erty-stricken and otherwise inferior persons, and 
that all the children, or even a considerable minority 
of them, come from unsatisfactory homes (except 
in as far as town life under any circumstances may 
be unsatisfactory), is not even at the commence- 
ment of a proper understanding of the big educa- 
tional problems of London. In the first place, the 
differences in bodily growth and mental proficiency 
between the children attending different schools is 
very considerable. I have taken persons accus- 
tomed to anthropological observation rapidly from 
one of the worst to one of the most favourably situ- 
ated schools, and they have expressed unbounded 
astonishment at the differences, which indeed re- 



78 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

quire no extended examination to become apparent. 
Short, restless, wrinkled, crafty, unwholesome look- 
ing children, yet muscularly vigorous and with a dog- 
like attachment to their teachers, give place to well- 
grown boys and girls (especially girls), open-faced, 
strong and quiet, capable of sustained mental ap- 
plication and bearing themselves as though their re- 
spect for their teachers, great as it is, were never- 
theless balanced by much respect for themselves. 

These are the extremes ; the gradations are many. 
The question of questions, of course, is just how far 
all this difference is due to hereditary influence and 
how far to social environment. That is the biggest 
question with which the Theory of Education (I in- 
clude now more than Pedagogy) has to deal. Are 
we by free education, free meals, free holidays, in- 
creasing the population at the wrong end, or are we, 
on the contrary, introducing an element of strength 
into the population, improving and so eliminating 
the inferiority which we all deplore! Now I am 
not unmindful that my problem in this paper is 
really only a part of this vastly greater problem, 
which, I maintain, can never be solved directly for 
human beings without anthropological records 
which, today, no one has either adequate means or 
adequate opportunity of making. 

But even the partial and subsidiary problems con- 
nected immediately with my own investigation may 
throw some reflected light on the larger one. In 
the first place, we shall find reason to believe that 
the solution of our own problem — the effect on men- 
tal proficiency of early entry into school — is not 
arrived at by believing that the children with "j^oor" 



AGE OF ENTKY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 79 

homes come to school at three, those from better 
ones at four, and those from the best homes of all 
after five and six years of age. Of course, we 
should expect, if that belief were true, that children 
from "poor" homes entering earlier would not be 
in advance of children entering later who came from 
better homes, even if the former had really profited 
intellectually by their longer school life. It is cer- 
tainly true that, in the best suburban districts, chil- 
dren begin school later than in very poor neighbour- 
hoods; but if we measure these against each other, 
we are comparing children who are, perhaps, con- 
genitally very different; at any rate they are very 
differently situated. My comparisons have, there- 
fore, been limited to children attending the same 
school. 

A careful reader of the foregoing statistics will 
already have noticed how evenly the pupils are 
spread out among the various groups of entry. Even 
in the poorest school selected, the number coming 
in from 3 to SYo years of age is not greatly in ex- 
cess of those coming later, and I was myself aston- 
ished to find, notwithstanding the law as to com- 
pulsory education, what a large proportion come 
to school for the first time decidedly over 5 years 
of age. But are not the children who come in at 3 
to 3I/2 years of age from poorer homes than those 
coming in from 31/2 to 4 and 4 to 41/2 and 4i/4 to 5 
years of age? 

We have, however, not yet decided what a "poor" 
home is. In consultation with Head Teachers I 
decided that a poor home should mean for us one 
in which there was no adequate means of super- 



80 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

vision if the child were not at school: a drunken 
mother or one who, without grown-up daughters 
at home, was compelled to go out to work, implied 
such a home. Obviously, parental neglect constituted 
a poor home. Having settled what we should mean, 
the Head Teacher and the Teacher of the class in 
consulation marked a "P" against the name of every 
child on the schedules who came within our definition. 
The marking in different schools was, I believe, 
surprisingly uniform; but if it were not, it would 
not affect these results, unless the standard varied 
within the same school, which, I think, is very im- 
probable. Perhaps the reader may obtain the most 
satisfactory comprehension of this side to the ques- 
tion if I present the results in some sort of order 
beginning with the schools, whether senior or in- 
fants' departments, which were situated in the best 
neighbourhoods. 

TABLE XXXVI. 
School "W." Infants. 















rorcentase of 


Age of entry. 


No. 


of entries. 


No. 


marked P. 


children 


marlied P. 


3—31/2 




7 




1 






14.3 


3y2— 4 




14 














4—41/2 




32 




2 






6.2 


41/2—5 




34 




1 






2.9 


5—5% 




20 




1 






5.0 


5y2— 6 




3 














6— 6 1/2 




1 















The number of such children in this school is, as 
we should expect, extremely small, namely, only 5 
children out of 111, roughly 5 per cent., and of these, 
be it noted, only one child comes to school before 31/2 
years of age. 

Let me take as a second case the infants' depart- 
ment of another well-situated school. 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PEOGRESS. 81 

TABLE XXXVII. 

School ''R." Infants. 













Percentage of 


Age of entry. 


No. 


of entries. 


No. marked P. 


children 


marlsed P. 


3—3V2 




9 


2 






22 


31/0—4 




9 












4—41/2 




13 


2 






18 


41/2—5 




33 


4 






12 


5— 5y2 




23 












SVa- 6 




8 












6—7 




4 













In this school again we have a very small num- 
ber of children marked P, in fact, only 8 altogether ; 
and, contrary to general belief, of these 8 children, 
4 come in, not at 3, but at 41/2 to 5 years of age. 

The next tabulation shows the results obtained 
from a similar inquiry in the Girls' department of 
the same school. 

TABLE XXXVIII. 
School ''R." Girls. 









Percentage of 


> of entry. 


No. of entries. 


No. marked P. 


children 


marked P. 


3—31/2 


32 


2 




6.2 


SVa- 4 


26 


2 




7.6 


4-^y2 


30 


2 




6.6 


4y2— 5 


63 


3 




4.7 


5—5% 


64 










5y2— 6 


13 










6— 6y2 


9 










6 1/2— 7 


4 











The children from ''poor" homes are, as we should 
expect in a school of this kind, very few in number, 
but they are spread out fairly evenly among all the 
groups who enter before 5 years of age. 

I present next the results from three departments 
of a school well-situated, but comparatively new, and 



82 



WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 



consequently attended by children of very mixed 
character. In this school we not only marked the 
children who came from poor homes, but also marked 
those who came from specially good homes; these 
cases were marked "E." 

TABLE XXXIX. 
School "G." Boys. 



Age of 
entry. 


No. of 
entries 


No. No. 
marlved E. marked 1*. 


I'l-rcontage 
of fliildren 
marked E. 


Percentage 
of eiiildren 
marked P. 


3—31/2 
31/2—4 
4—41/2 
41/2—5 
5—51/2 
51^—6 


12 

7 

8 

16 

12 

2 


1 
1 

1 
2 
4 

1 


3 

2 
1 
2 




8.3 
14.3 
12.5 
12.4 
33.3 
50.0 


25.0 
28.6 
12.5 
12.5 










School 


"G." 


Girls. 




Age of 
entry. 


No. of 
entries 


No. 
marlied E. m£ 


No. 
irked P. 


Percentage 
of ctilldren 
marked E. 


Percentage 
of children 
marked P. 


3— 3y2 

3y2— 4 
4— 4y2 
4y2^5 
5— sys 
5y2— 6 


7 

4 

15 

10 

25 

3 





2 
1 
4 

1 


2 
1 
1 
2 
2 
1 





13.3 
10.0 
16.0 
33.3 


28.6 
26.0 

6.6 
20.0 

8.0 
33.3 






School "G." 


Infants. 




Age of 
entry. 


No. of 
entries 


No. No. 
marked E. marked P. 


Percentage 
of children 
marked E. 


Percentage 
of children 
marked P. 


3— 3y2 

31/2—4 
4—41/2 
41/2—5 

d—dVo 


1 
7 

18 
24 
18 



1 
4 
7 
2 



1 
6 
3 

4 



14.3 
2a.2 
29.2 
11.1 



14.3 
33.3 
12.5 
22.2 



It is, perhaps, worth noting that, in this case, a 
fair proportion of children marked "P" came in 
after 5 years of age, and it is worth noting also 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 83 

that the larger proportions of the children marked 
^'E" came to school before 5 years of age. 

The next results presented are from the Boys' 
and Girls' departments of a school which I have de- 
scribed as situated in a rather poor neighbourhood, 
but which, during the period which my report covers, 
was not attended by very poor children. 



Age 





TABLE 


XL 








School ''S." 


Boys. 














Percentage of 


; of entry. 


No. of entries. 


No 


1. marked P. 


children 


marljed P. 


3— Sya 


57 




7 




12.2 


SVs— 4 


25 




1 




4.0 


4.-^ 1/2 


28 




2 




7.1 


4y2— 5 


32 




4 




12.5 


5— 5y2 


28 




2 




7.1 


5y2— 6 


9 












6—6V2 


1 












eya— 7 


1 













It may be worth noting that 6 out of 16 children 
marked ''P" entered school after 41/0 years of age. 

School's." Girls. 













Percentage of 


; of entry. 


No. 


of entries. 


No. 


marked P. 


children 


marked 


3— 3y2 




61 




9 




14.7 


3y2~4 




46 




4 




8.6 


4-4 y2 




45 




4 




8.8 


4y2— 5 




31 




5 




16.1 


5— 5y2 




41 




3 




7.3 



In this case even a larger proportion of the chil- 
dren marked "P" came to school after 4i/4 years 
of age. 

The next results are those from School "C," an 
infants' department in a medium neighbourhood. In 
this case, as in School ''G," the school was small 



84 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

and the circumstances of the children well known to 
the Head Mistress; we therefore marked also the 
children with specially good homes ; these, as before, 
were marked "E." 

TABLE XLI. 

School ''C." Infants. 



Age of 


No. of 


No. 


No. 


Percentage 


Percentage 


entry. 


entries. 


marked E. 


marked P. 


marked E. 


marked P. 


3—31/2 


8 


5 


1 


62 


12 


31/2-^ 


6 


4 


1 


66 


13 


4-^y2 


12 


1 


2 


8 


16 


41/2—5 


9 


3 





33 





5—51/2 


8 


4 


2 


50 


25 



It is worth noting that the highest percentages of 
children marked " E " are among the earlier entering 
groups, and the highest percentage of children 
marked "P" is to be found in the group of children 
who enter school after 5 years of age. 

The next results are those from School "0. K.", 
which I have previously described as a new school 
situated in a poor neighbourhood. 

TABLE XLII. 
School ''O.K." Infants. 



Age of 


No. of 


No. 


No. 


I'ercentage 


Percentage 


entry. 


entries. 


marked E. 


marked P. 


marked E. 


marked P. 


3— SVa 


14 


2 


1 


14.3 


7.1 


31/2—4 


12 





2 





16.6 


4— 4y2 


6 


1 





16.6 





41/2—5 


13 


4 





30.7 





5^51/2 


4 















This distribution more nearly accords with that 
accepted by popular opinion than that of any other 
school in which my inquiry was made ; but even here 
we find 14 per cent, of the earliest entering group are 
marked as coming from specially good homes. 



A«E OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 85 

School "O.K." Boys. 



Age of 


No. of 


No. 


No. 


Percentage 


Percentage 


entry. 


entries. 


marked E. 


marked P. 


marked 


E. 


marked P. 


3—31^ 


23 





2 







8.6 


SVa— 1 


15 


2 


1 


13.3 




6.6 


4— 4^2 


17 


3 


2 


17.6 




11.7 


41/2—5 


18 


1 


1 


5.5 




5.5 


5— 5y2 


23 


4 


1 


17.4 




4.3 



The following table gives the results from a Boys ' 
department situated in a very poor neighbourhood: 

TABLE XLIII. 

School "S. A." Boys. 



Age of 


Xo. of 


No. 


No. 


Percentage 


Percentage 


entry. 


entries. 


marked E. 


marked P. 


marked E. 


marked P. 


3—314 


102 


10 


27 


10 


26 


3% — 4 


60 


4 


19 


7 


32 


4— 4y2 


50 


5 


11 


10 


22 


41/0—5 


42 


4 


10 


9 


24 


5—51/2 


26 


3 


6 


11 


23 



As was to be expected, there is a very much larger 
number of children marked "P," but it is worth 
noting that the proportion, both of those marked 
*'E" and those marked "P," is fairly evenly dis- 
tributed between all the groups of entry. 

Finally, I present the results of an inquiry into 
the cases of all the infants promoted in one year 
(1905) to the senior department of a school in an 
extremely poor neighborhood. 

TABLE XLIV. 

School ''N." Promoted Infants. 













Percentage 


Age of 


No. of entries. 


No. marked P. 


marked P. 


entry. 


Boys. 


Girls. 


Boys. 


Girls. 


Boys. Girls. 


3— 3y2 


3 


5 


3 


2 


100 40 


SVa— 4 


10 


5 


2 


2 


20 40 


4— 4y2 


12 


15 


2 


3 


17 20 


4%— 5 


8 


11 


3 


3 


37 27 


5—51/2 


6 


4 


2 


1 


33 25 



86 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

Summing up the evidence of this section, I think 
we can say with confidence that children from 
"poor" homes not only do not exclusively form the 
early entering groups of Board School children, but 
that they are fairly distributed among the various 
ages of entry and that, even in the poorest neigh- 
bourhoods, a fair proportion of them come after 5; 
that is, after the limit of the compulsory school age 
is passed. But the popular notion, namely, that the 
children from "poor" homes all come to school at 
3 years of age, and all the children from "good" 
homes at 5 years of age, is not entirely incorrect. 

Can we test the point by summarizing the results 
from all the schools dealt with? In this case I think 
we can safely do so, since the standard for "poor 
homes ' ' was the same, however variously the schools 
were situated. 





TABLE XLV. 






All schools. 












Total 


Percentage 


Lge of entry. 


Total entries. 


marked P. 


marked P. 


3—31/2 


341 




62 


18.2 


31/2—4 


246 




38 


15.4 


4— 4V2 


301 




40 


13.3 


41/2—5 


344 




41 


11.9 


5— 5y2 


302 




24 


7.9 


5y2— 6 


38 




1 


2.6 



The summarized table shows that there is approxi- 
mately the same number of children from "poor 
homes" entering from 3i/o to 4, from 4 to 41/2, and 
from 41/. to 5; a much larger number entering from 
3 to 31/2 and a much smaller number entering after 5. 

Are we entitled to suppose that the earlier enter- 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PEOGRESS. 87 

ing* groups would have shown greater proportional 
progress than the groups who enter later if the pro- 
portion of children marked ''P" had been as high in 
the later as in the earlier groups'? Let us test this 
hypothesis in one or two cases, selecting those most 
obviously favourable to it, namely, those in which 
we have a large proportion of children marked ''P." 

TABLE XLVL 

School "S. A." Boys. (See Table XLIIL) 

Entries 
Average excluding 

Ace of Total progress "poor" Average 

entry. entries. mark. children. progress mark. 

3—3% 102 15.4 76 17.2 

3y2^ 60 11.5 40 13.3 

4 — 4yo 50 13.6 39 14.1 

4i^_5 42 10.9 32 12.4 

5—51/2 26 4.4 20 5.1 

It is obvious that the elimination of the poor chil- 
dren has slightly raised the progress marks of each 
section, the mark of the group entering from 3 
to 31/2 by 1.8; that of the group entering from 31/2 
to 4 by 1.8 ; that of the 4 to 41/2 group by .7 ; that of 
the 41/2 to 5 group by 1.5; and that of the latest 
.entering group by .7. But the elimination has left 
the relationship between the progress marks of the 
various groups practically unchanged. We have no 
need, apparently, even in very poor schools, to con- 
sider the inclusion of the marks of the ''poor" chil- 
dren within the grouped averages as vitiating the 
conclusion which would be drawn from the tables 
if the **poor" children were excluded. Let me take 
one further illustration. 



88 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

TABLE XL VII. 

School "S." Girls. (See Table XL.) 









Entries 








Average 


excluding 




Agre of 


Total 


progress 


"poor" 


Average 


entry. 


entries. 


mark. 


children. 


progress mark. 


3— 3y2 


61 


19.4 


52 


21.3 


3y2— 4 


46 


17.9 


42 


18.6 


4— 4y2 


45 


20.8 


41 


21.4 


4y2— 5 


31 


16.3 


26 


16.1 


5—5 y2 


41 


13.7 


38 


13.6 



The elimination of the "poor" children has had 
very little influence on the averages ; in the later 
entering groups it has even depressed them slightly. 
But the important point is that the relation between 
the averages of the various groups remains prac- 
tically unchanged. 

In the case of many schools it is obvious at a 
glance that the number of "poor" children in each 
group is quite insufficient seriously to affect the 
average for the group; and I have shown in two 
cases where a considerable number of poor children 
are to be found that the elimination of their marks 
leaves the relationship between the marks of the 
groups who enter at different ages practically un- 
changed. 



V. 

INFLUENCE OF EARLY ENTRY ON BEHAVIOUR 

AND ATTENTIVENESS. 

Experienced Head Teachers of Infants' depart- 
ments, so far as my knowledge goes, have always 
been divided as to the value of school attendance 
for children under five as far as intellectual pro- 
ficiency and subsequent school progress were con- 
cerned. But there was much less division of opinion 
on the question I now propose to answer. 

In what way, if at all, do children who enter school 
at 3 years of age ditf er from those who enter later 
in their subsequent behaviour and attention in 
school ? 

The Head Mistresses I questioned were unani- 
mously in favour of the opinion that early entry 
meant better behaviour and improved and sustained 
power of attention. I could not find that any at- 
tempt had actually been made to investigate the mat- 
ter ; but that is hardly to be wondered at ; the affirm- 
ative answer seems self-evident. 

I do not suppose that any of my readers will doubt 
that the teachers who are teaching the children are 
competent to give them a satisfactory mark for be- 
haviour. They were asked to keep their children 
under careful observation with the problem of allot- 
ting a ''conduct mark" in mind. In some schools, 
indeed, a conduct mark is regularly given as part of 
the terminal examination. 



90 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

But what exactly do we mean when we try to 
measure attentiveness? Attention has no meaning 
apart from some activity or function within which 
it is working. The very form of the word indicates 
that attention must be " to " something. What, then, 
can we mean by a measure of attention? A child, 
for example, — it is an extreme case — may, as we 
say, have no more attention to give to hitting bulls '- 
eyes, but plenty for solving quadratic equations. Re- 
verse the illustration, and my reader will more read- 
ily accept my standpoint. How then can I, holding 
this view, obtain a numerical evaluation of attention 
per sef 

Teachers had argued that children who came at 
three years of age were more attentive than those 
who entered school later; and they meant by this 
that they appeared to listen better to their teachers 
and to try harder and more continuously to do the 
school work which was set them to do, or which 
they undertook for themselves. Roughly speaking, 
if they were attentive in many ways and to many 
things, they were regarded as deserving a high 
mark. In the schools in which an 'attention' mark 
was given to individual pupils, I was able to obtain 
the services of the teacher of the class and of the 
Head Mistress. They jointly decided as to the mark 
deserved by each pupil. 

I took no observations in senior departments, 
since those from the first cases in infants' depart- 
ments were so conclusive that I thought it unneces- 
sary to go further. 

I give first the results from School " C, " in which 
my readers may remember there was perhaps some 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PKOGEESS. 91 

very slight intellectual advantage from earlier as 
compared with later entry into school. In this school 
the mark for behaviour and attentiveness was given 
as a combined one. 

TABLE XL VIII. 

School "C." Infants. 







Average 


marli for behaviour 


Age of entry. 


No. of entries. 


and attentiveness. 


3—31/2 


8 




7.5 


31/2—4 


6 




7.0 


4—41/2 


12 




6.1 


4y2— 5 


9 




6.4 


5—51/2 


8 




7.2 


51/.— 6 


4 




7.7 



It is probable, from the appearance of these aver- 
ages, that there is a slight negative correlation, if 
any, between length of school life and conduct and 
attentiveness. It is well to turn to the table which 
shows for this school the number of children who 
come from specially good and from poor homes 
(Table XLI.) ; and it will be found, I think, that the 
variations in the homes of the children do not ac- 
count for the increase of the mark, which coincides 
with a later age for commencing school. 

The next results are those from the infants' de- 
partment of School '*R." No attempt was made to 
give a mark for behaviour; it was sufficiently obvi- 
ous that the 'bad cases' had not entered at any par- 
ticular age; but great care was given to the assess- 
ment of the mark for attentiveness. 



92 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

TABLE XLIX. 
School '^R." Infanta. 



Age of entiy. 


No. of pupils. 


Average mark for attentiveness. 


3—31/2 


9 


6.5 


31/2—4 


10 


7.2 


4— 4y2 


13 


6.6 


4y2— 5 


33 


7.2 


5—51/2 


23 


6.5 


51/2—6 


8 


8.0 


6—7 


4 


6.5 



The only conclusion we can draw is that, by the 
time the age of 714 years is reached, the age of en- 
try, in so far as the development of good behaviour 
and attentiveness is concerned, is irrelevant. 

In the next school I obtained separate marks for 
Conduct and Attentiveness. 

TABLE L. 

School ''G." Infants. 





No. 


of 


Conduct, 


Attentiveness, 


Age of entry. 


childi 


•en. 


average mark. 


average mark. 


31/2—4 


5 




6.8 


7.0 


4— 4y2 


14 




7.3 


8.2 


41/2—5 


21 




7.0 


7.5 


5—51/2 


11 




7.7 


7.0 



There appears to be a very slight disadvantage in 
early entry as far as conduct is concerned and a 
very slight advantage so far as attentiveness is con- 
cerned, but so slight as to be doubtful in both cases 
as to whether it exists or not. 

In the next school also I was able to obtain a 
separate mark for Behaviour and Attention. 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGEESS. 93 

TABLE LI. 
School ^'0. K." Infants. 





No. of 


Conduct, 


Atteutlveness, 


? of entry. 


children. 


average mark. 


average mark. 


3—31/2 


14 


7.7 


7.5 


31/2^ 


12 


6.5 


7.4 


4-^1^ 


6 


8.6 


8.8 


41^—5 


13 


7.4 


8.1 


6—51/2 


4 


8.0 


7.7 



It is fairly certain even from tlie inspection of 
these averages that the advantage in conduct and at- 
tention does not lie with the groups of early entry. 
It must be remembered, however, that the only chil- 
dren in this department marked as coming from 
poor homes are in the first two groups ; the subtrac- 
tion of these cases, however, still leaves the average 
mark in the two early groups lower than in the later 
ones. 

Finally, I give the mark for attentiveness, ob- 
tained after a month's observation by new teachers, 
of the infants promoted to the girls' and boys' de- 
partments of School "N," which, my reader may 
remember, was situated in an extremely poor dis- 
trict. 

TABLE LII. 

School '*N." Promoted Infants. 





No. of 


Power of attention, 




; of entry. 


children. 


average mark. 


M. V. 


3—31/2 


8 


6.2 


1.7 


31/2—4 


15 


6.1 


1.6 


4—41/2 


27 


6.4 


1.9 


41/2—5 


19 


7.1 


2.1 


5—51/2 


10 


5.6 


2.0 



VI. 
SUMMARIZED CONCLUSIONS. 

It is not usually an easy thing to present sum- 
marized conclusions which are not misleading, but 
I think in the case of this inquiry it will be easier 
than usual on account of the uniformity of the re- 
sults. I think my reader will accept the following 
as what an American would call conservative con- 
clusions, by which, if I understand him rightly, he 
means conclusions that are very fully justified by 
the facts. 

1. That from the entrance age of three to five, 
early entrance confers no intellectual advantage on 
the child, either in his infant school work or in his 
subsequent progress in later school life. 

2. That there is some reason to suppose that chil- 
dren who enter after 5 years of age show some re- 
tardation in subsequent school progress. In some 
schools that was by no means the case; in the one 
indubitable case. School "S. A.," it might be ex- 
plained by special difficulties of organisation; but 
there are, I think, minor indications here and there 
which collectively make it likely that, at least in 
poor districts, a child who enters much after 5 will 
suffer intellectual loss. But I am fully conscious 
that these children who enter after 5 are ''selected" 
children. Some are weak in health, some come from 
very good homes and have had a good deal of in- 
struction at home, and some have been driven into 



AGE OF ENTRY AND SCHOOL PROGRESS. 95 

school by the compulsory attendance officials. So 
that I feel little confidence in any conclusion con- 
cerning children who begin school, as these do, after 
the compulsory age. But as the proportion of chil- 
dren with 'poor homes' who enter after 5 is very 
small, it is probable that the home circumstances of 
this group are, on the whole, above the average. 
If this is so, there is ground for supposing that entry 
after 5 is somewhat disadvantageous. 

3. That these conclusions are quite independent of 
the particular form of teaching adopted. The great 
elasticity of the English elementary educational 
system, obtaining more especially during the last 
ten years, has given rise to a number of widely vary- 
ing schools, diverse both in results and methods. 
I was careful to include schools of different ideals 
and different methods in the range of my inquiry. 
Identical results are found in schools in which the 
youngest classes did nothing but "kindergarten" 
work, and in schools in which no ''kindergarten" 
work was done. 

4. That, even in poor neighbourhoods, only a small 
proportion of children now avail themselves of the 
permission to come to school at 3, and may come 
after 5 — the compulsory school age — is passed. 

5. That children who come from very poor homes, 
that is, from homes in which there is no adequate 
supervision for the young child, are smaller in num- 
ber than is generally supposed ; and that, even under 
present conditions, such children commence to at- 
tend school not at one special age, but fairly evenly, 
in the same proportions as the other children, be- 
tween the ages of 3 to 5^2 years. But not quite 



96 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

evenly; there is some positive correlation be- 
tween 'poor homes' and early entry. There are 
probably rather more children in the schools who 
come from 'poor homes' than are scheduled here. 
For no child is scheduled who has not passed his 
whole school life within the same school — a condi- 
tion which, of necessity, excludes the ''floating" 
population, among which a larger proportion of chil- 
dren with poor homes is to be expected than amongst 
the remaining children. An important point is that 
the elimination of children with "poor homes" from 
the schedules leaves the main contention (conclu- 
sion 1) unaffected. 

6. That no advantage appears to exist in early 
entry so far as the subsequent attainment of good 
behaviour and the development of attentiveness are 
concerned. 



INDEX. 

Age of entry into school in — 

America, 7, 8. 

England, 7, 8, 77, 79, 8G, 95. 

Germany, 7, 8. 
Attention, laow measured, 90. 

"Board School" children, social circumstances of, 77, 78. 

Conduct marks, how given, 89. 

Congestion in schools, influence on classification, 37. 

Correlation formula, use illustrated, 3. 

Curriculiuu, Higher Grade, influence on classification, 31. 

Early entry and intelligence, 45, 61. 

Elementary schools, London, suggested grading of, G2. 

Environment, social, and hereditary influence, 78. 

Floating population and poor homes, 96. 
Formula of correlation, use illustrated, 3. 

Grading, suggested, of London elementary schools, 62. 

Hereditary influence and social environment, 78. 
Higher grade curriculum, influence on classification, 31. 
Homes, poor, definition of, 79, 80. 
Homes, poor, and floating population, 96. 

Imagination exercises, 73. 

Immediate memory exercises, 71, 72. 

Infants' departments. Standard I tests, 41, 46, 50, 58, 63, 69. 

Intelligence and early entry, 45, 61. 

'"Kindergarten" methods, prolongation of, 31, 58, (50. 
"Kindergarten" methods, influence of, 68, 70. 

London elementary schools, suggested grading of, 62. 

Marks for conduct, how given, 89. 

Marks for progress, how estimated, 10, 11. 

Marks for terminal examinations explained, 18, 21. 

Mean Variation (M. V.) explained, 14. 

Memory, immediate, exercises, 71, 72. 

Mental proficiency and school examinations, 67. 



98 WHEN SHOULD A CHILD BEGIN SCHOOL. 

Methods, "Kindergarten," prolongation of, 31, 58, 60. 
Methods, "Kindergarten," influence of, 68, 70. 

Normative progress explained, 10. 

Observation exercises, 73. 

Organisation of schools, importance of understanding. 48, 49. 

Poor homes, definition of, 79, 80. 
Poor homes, and floating population, 96. 
Proficiency, mental, and school examinations, 67. 
Progress marks, how estimated, 10, 11. 
Progress, normative, explained, 10. 
Progress, schedules of, how made out, 13. 
Progress, school records of, importance of, 35. 
Psychological tests, 71, 72, 73, 74. 

Reasoning exercises, 74. 

Records of progress, school, importance of, 35. 

Schedules of progi*ess, how made out, 13. 

School examinations and mental proficiency, 67. 

School organization, importance of understanding, 48, 49. 

School records of progress, importance of, 35. 

School "Standards," nature of, 11. 

Social circumstances of "Board School" children, 77, 78. 

Standard I tests in Infants" departments, 41, 46, .50, 58, 63, 69. 

Terminal examination mark explained, 18, 21. 

Tests for Standard I in Infants' departments, 41, 46, 50, 58, 03, 69. 

Tests, psychological, 71, 72, 73, 74. 



MAY 2 1911 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



\\^'^ 



\2 



